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Tropicana officially under new ownership

Updated September 28, 2022 - 9:51 am

Tropicana Las Vegas is officially under new ownership.

Bally’s Corp. announced Tuesday that it completed its acquisition of the Strip hotel-casino. It purchased the Tropicana’s “non-land assets” for $148 million in cash from landlord Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc., and it will lease the land underneath the resort for $10.5 million per year from the same company.

Bally’s was cleared last week by the Nevada Gaming Commission to close on its purchase of the Tropicana.

The 35-acre property features 1,470 rooms, 50,000 square feet of casino space, a 1,200-seat theater and 100,000 square feet of convention and meeting space.

Rhode Island-based Bally’s announced the acquisition in April 2021, saying the deal was valued at about $308 million.

In January, Bally’s Chairman Soohyung Kim told the Review-Journal that the casino operator would “almost certainly” look to rename the property Bally’s and likely look to redevelop the property.

“We’re open to it all,” Kim said at the time, adding that demolishing the hotel-casino and building something from scratch could be one way to “maximize value.”

One possibility: Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics have reportedly looked at the Tropicana as a potential site for a new ballpark in Las Vegas.

“It’s been widely publicized that the A’s are looking at this site,” Gaming and Leisure Chairman and CEO Peter Carlino told analysts during an earnings call this spring, adding the baseball team has looked at other properties as well.

Still, the A’s have “a very, very strong interest in our site if the transaction can work to their advantage,” Carlino said at the time.

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

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