Station Casinos’ next Las Vegas resort is active construction site
After acquiring the site more than 20 years ago, Station Casinos has broken ground on its newest project in Las Vegas.
And, the company said last month, it is already working on others around the valley.
Construction is underway on its Durango hotel-casino, on Durango Drive just south of the 215 Beltway in the southwest valley, near Ikea. As seen last week, construction trailers, trucks and heavy equipment were on-site.
Crews were doing site work, with no vertical structures taking shape yet. Clark County issued a permit for early grading Jan. 12 and a permit for final grading March 2, records show.
Station told analysts in early February that it had broken ground. A company representative did not provide additional information about the project Tuesday.
Unlike other casino operators in Southern Nevada, Station owns big tracts of real estate scattered around the region, including in fast-growing communities, that are essentially in storage for future resorts. The locals-focused chain unveiled plans for its $750 million Durango project last year, saying it expected to break ground in early 2022.
Construction is expected to take about 18 to 24 months for Durango, which will include 200-plus rooms, four restaurants, a resort-style pool and more than 73,000 square feet of casino space, according to an investor presentation.
‘Ton of population growth’
Station, which sold a nearly 90-acre land tract in Reno this past fall, did not rule out more land sales during the Feb. 2 earnings call with analysts.
Stephen Cootey, chief financial officer of Station parent Red Rock Resorts, said the company is trying to determine which of its development sites are “strategic” and which are “non-core.”
Its phones are always accepting inbound calls, which occur “constantly,” and its land portfolio “is only getting much more valuable over time,” Cootey said.
Still, the company previously said it wants to double its presence in the Las Vegas Valley, and last month pointed to more projects ahead.
It has “started to work on plans and lay out the project that we have” in Henderson’s Inspirada community, a “dynamic” area with “a ton of population growth,” Red Rock Resorts vice chairman Lorenzo Fertitta told analysts.
The company is also “actively working” on a project in Skye Canyon, said Fertitta, who noted that area is “one of the fastest-growing” master-planned communities in the country.
Station owns around 45 acres in Inspirada, at the southern tip of the valley, and 47 acres in Skye Canyon, in the upper northwest valley, according to a securities filing.
Both communities ranked among the top 25 nationally for homebuilders’ sales last year, with 741 new-home sales in Inspirada and 655 in Skye Canyon, consulting firms RCLCO and John Burns Real Estate Consulting previously reported.
‘Next pipeline of deals’
Station has long had extensive landholdings in Southern Nevada, though real estate pros figured it would develop its southwest valley parcel before the others.
The Durango land, which Station acquired in 2000, has freeway access and visibility and sits in a fast-growing part of Las Vegas. Developers have put up housing tracts, apartment complexes, retail properties and other projects in the southwest valley over the past several years, with still-more construction now underway.
During last month’s earnings call, Fertitta said the company is “not in a position to commit to exactly what’s going to be next,” adding it spends “a lot of time debating” that.
But he said Station wants to be in a position where, “right on the heels of opening” Durango, it can announce “what the next pipeline of deals are going to be.”
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.
