Station Casinos sees a future filled with construction

Frank Fertitta III, the casino chain’s top boss, reiterated its expansion plans during an earnings call this month. He wants to get the under-construction Durango resort open and then be ready to start another project, with the goal of doubling its portfolio by 2030.

The plan, he said, is to “continue to roll out new properties one after the other.”

Station has long controlled big chunks of land throughout the Las Vegas Valley. But it’s now set to shake up its real estate portfolio through a mix of development, land purchases, demolition and sales.

The locals-focused company, which operates Red Rock Resort, Green Valley Ranch Resort and other properties, is expanding its already vast land holdings. It purchased roughly 126 acres south of the Strip last month — across the street, no less, from a 57-acre spread it’s owned for years — and says it’s in the process of acquiring nearly 70 acres in North Las Vegas.

Station also announced last month that it would demolish Texas Station, Fiesta Rancho and Fiesta Henderson — all of which have been closed since the onset of the pandemic — and sell the sites.

“We’re seeing an extraordinary amount of inbound calls and demand for those three properties,” Stephen Cootey, chief financial officer of Station parent Red Rock Resorts, told analysts this month.

As for its construction pipeline, Station has plenty of places to build. Unlike other casino operators in Southern Nevada, it owns big tracts of land scattered around the valley that are essentially in storage for future resort projects.

As outlined in a securities filing, its properties include 58 acres at Flamingo Road and Town Center Drive in Summerlin; 47 acres in Skye Canyon in the upper northwest valley; and 45 acres in Inspirada at the southern tip of the valley.

Lorenzo Fertitta, vice chairman of Red Rock Resorts, said the company is “currently working on plans” for its Inspirada and Skye Canyon sites — both of which are in master-planned communities that have seen no shortage of growth in recent years.

Its strategy includes “making sure that we’re completely up to date” on Las Vegas’ real estate market, including “where the growth is going,” he noted.

Station said it did not have any additional information to release for this story.

For now, it’s betting big on the southwest valley, an area that has also seen tremendous growth over the past several years.

It started construction in the first quarter on its $750 million hotel-casino on Durango Drive just south of the 215 Beltway, near Ikea. It expects to open the resort in fall 2023, Cootey said this month.

We’ll find out eventually how long Station’s planned build-out takes after Durango opens, though in the past, the company hasn’t been in a rush to develop its extensive collection of desert tracts.

After all, it acquired the Durango site more than 20 years ago.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.