Durango Resort expansion project could begin this year

The newest locals resort-casino in the Las Vegas Valley will expand its casino floor and parking capabilities in a project expected to begin this year, operators of Durango announced Tuesday.

Red Rock Resorts, the parent company of the locals Station Casinos brand, said it will add about 2,500 square feet of casino space, a new high-limit slot and bar area and a covered parking garage. The expansion calls for 230 additional slot machines — including 120 in the high-limit room — and about 2,000 spots in the garage.

Executives shared the news during the company’s second-quarter earnings results in a call with investors on Tuesday. They said the expansion is still in the planning and budgeting phases, so specific timelines and price tags are not yet available.

“We are pleased to have announced the Durango expansion on our call earlier today,” the company said in a statement. “In the just over six months since it opened, Durango has, thanks to our team members, been positively received by our guests and has been profitable from day one. In addition to creating both construction and permanent jobs by adding more casino space, the expansion will provide even more convenient parking for our guests and will position the property well for future expansion phases.”

Red Rock Resorts President Scott Kreeger said the garage is paramount to other future amenities development. The additional casino space, meanwhile, is meant to add more for high-spending customers.

“The addition of a new slot high-limit room is just testament to our strategy to invest in higher net-worth customers. We’re seeing that in our highest database segment, in our out-of-town regional, and the more we invest in high limit experiences and VIP, there’s great returns,”Kreeger said. “We’re just leaning into that.”

Expansion opportunities on the north side of the property would focus on entertainment and weekend visitation draws, like a movie theater or a country-western dance hall. (Stoney’s North Forty, an off-shoot of the dance hall brand, opened at Santa Fe Station last fall.) Expansion projects on the south side of the site, meanwhile, would focus on mid-week visitation efforts, like a hotel expansion and spa and meeting space additions.

Red Rock’s leaders said they thought the locals market has a long-term stable future. Durango, specifically, is expected to perform at or above previous new-build projects.

Wall Street analysts were curious about how the Durango announcement could affect development plans at other Red Rock landholdings. The company is preparing entitlements and other plans for a resort-casino project in Henderson’s Inspirada community — CEO and Chairman Frank Fertitta said they are leaning toward the site as the company’s next greenfield project.

The proposed development could start while new Durango phases are under construction, executives said. But they would be watching for the health of the Las Vegas economy, customer trends at Durango and at Red Rock hotel-casino, and the balance sheet relating to capital allocation.

For the quarter that ended June 30, the company’s consolidated operations reported a net income of $69.8 million — a 6.8 percent decrease from the previous year — 60 cents per share, on net revenue of $486.4 million.

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.