In Las Vegas, it often seems like bigger is better.
Caesars Entertainment (CZR), MGM Resorts International (MGM), and Wynn Resorts (WYNN) certainly seem to subscribe to that logic. The three biggest players on the Las Vegas strip seem to go for spectacle and grandeur in building properties that make normal hotels look tiny.
The Strip features outsized concepts designed to stand out. There's not a lot of subtlety to Caesars Paris or MGM's New York New York. And while Wynn may not embrace theming, it's golden hotels basically scream look at me like someone wearing a pink tuxedo to someone else's wedding.
Attracting tourists to your property on the Las Vegas Strip means giving them something to look at and a reason to be there. That might be the high-end glitz of Caesars Palace or MGM's Aria, or it could be the truly over-the-top kitsch of Caesars Flamingo or MGM's Excalibur.
The big players on the Las Vegas Strip have embraced excess which has caused smaller rivals like Red Rock Resorts (RRR), owners of the Station Casinos brand to do something different. Now, Red Rock, a company that caters more to locals than tourists has made a big move as a way to clear its path toward adding new locations.
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Red Rock Resorts Closes Three Station Casinos
Owned by the Fertitta brothers of Ultimate Fighting Championship fame, Red Rock owns a number of properties off the Las Vegas Strip. Three of those, which used the Station Casinos name -- Texas Station, Fiesta Rancho and Fiesta Henderson -- were closed in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Now, the decision has been made to permanently close those locations and demolish the buildings on the property, according to a Las Vegas Review-Journal story. The three properties occupied 107.5 acres of land and the company believes that the customers for the shuttered casinos have shifted their business to other Station properties.
"Customers of Texas Station and Fiesta Rancho, located at Lake Mead Boulevard and Rancho Drive in North Las Vegas, have moved on to Santa Fe Station to the northwest and to a Wildfire casino operation just south of Lake Mead Boulevard, while those patronizing Fiesta Henderson have moved to Sunset Station and Green Valley Ranch, both in Henderson," the paper reported.
Red Rock Has Big Expansion Plans
Just because it has closed three locations does not mean Red Rock has given up on Las Vegas. The company has multiple new properties in the works, including a casino under its Wildfire brand downtown in the Fremont Street area.
The new casino will be just south of Charleston Boulevard in the downtown area. Wildfire, like other Red Rock brands, caters to local residents not tourists.
"Convenient local gaming and personalized service is what we’re all about -- but it’s the Station Casinos Boarding Pass that elevates the Wildfire experience even further," the company says on its website.
The company also has big plans for another, much larger development, Red Rock President Scott Kreeger told the Review-Journal.
“We’re working with the city of North Las Vegas on a potential development site for another large-scale casino resort,” Kreeger said. “We also are very interested in the tavern and small nonrestricted space, and we have some investment plans in regard to that in North Las Vegas as well.”
Red Rock also has the large-scale $750 million Durango Hotel & Casino at the 215 Beltway and Durango Drive in southwest Las Vegas planned.
