Durango expansion could start by yearend, parent company says

Station Casinos’ five-month-old resort Durango could move forward with expansion plans by the end of this year or early next year, executives with its parent company said Tuesday.

The potential expansion of the company’s new resort exemplifies its strong debut in the locals casino market. Executives believe Durango will achieve its margin goals faster than originally planned, though some cannibalization in customers at Red Rock Resort has occurred, the company said during its first-quarter earnings call with Wall Street analysts.

In response to an analyst’s question about future development plans, executives said Red Rock Resorts will first focus on developing a 100,000-square-foot casino with the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians in Madera, California. That’s expected to break ground in the third quarter. Then, plans to develop Durango’s second phase could move forward by the end of 2024 or early 2025.

The company is simultaneously working on entitlements and planning for those projects plus at a site in Henderson’s Inspirada community, it said.

In the quarter that ended March 31, Red Rock reported net income of $78.4 million, or 73 cents per share, on net revenue of $488.9 million. That’s compared to net income of $85.5 million, or 77 cents per share, on net revenue of $433.6 million in the first quarter of 2023.

Red Rock executives said their growth, in both financial results and increasing customers in the database, had to do with where their properties are located. They pointed to the southwest Las Vegas Valley’s population growth at a higher rate than the rest of the region. That growth in the south valley could benefit two parcels in the company’s landbank identified for future development: 45 acres in Inspirada and 126 acres at Cactus Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard.

“We have a little bit of a wind at our back with new customers coming online literally every month,” CEO Frank Fertitta said.

Red Rock has a long history of buying gaming-entitled parcels and holding onto them for future development or sale. The company is actively marketing its former Wild Wild West site, a 100-acre parcel near Interstate 15 on Tropicana Avenue, and about 40 acres of the Cactus site.

McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.