Las Vegas loves mystery almost as much as it loves glamour and glitz. The city has a shady past tied to the mafia, and it has always been hard to distinguish legends from reality. Vegas has always offered speakeasy-type experiences, events you have to know about to attend, and other goings-on tied to the city's mystique.
Over the past two years, since the pandemic hit, the Las Vegas Strip has also been some of the hottest real estate on Earth. Multiple new casinos have been built with Resorts World and the opening-in-late-2023 Fontainebleau being the biggest projects simply because they were built from scratch.
Those deals should not diminish Caesars Entertainment's (CZR) planned overhaul of its Ballys Casino into its Horseshoe Brand or the less massive, but still significant, overhaul quietly underway at Circus Circus.
In addition, MGM Resorts International (MGM) just took over operations at the Cosmopolitan, and while it has kept any changes close to the vest, changes are clearly coming.
That move, of course, was made in tandem with MGM selling operating rights for the Mirage to Hard Rock International. That company plans to build its iconic Guitar Hotel on that property, at least partly where the current Mirage Volcano sits.
Beyond that, a number of major pieces of Las Vegas Strip land have been purchased. That includes Las Vegas real estate operator Siegel Group buying a 10-acre patch of the Strip with plans to open a major resort/casino it.
And the billionaire owner of the National Basketball Association's Houston Rockets, Tilman Fertitta, who also owns the Golden Nugget casino in downtown Las Vegas, is reportedly planning to purchase prime property on the Strip, located between Caesars' Planet Hollywood and the MGM Grand to develop a new high-end casino project, sources told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The lengthy list of transactions also includes at least one (maybe two) NBA-ready arenas, the MSG (MSGS) Sphere first-of-its-kind entertainment venue, and a possible new Major League Baseball stadium for the Oakland Athletics.
Now, however, another piece of the Las Vegas Strip has been sold, but the buyer and their intentions remain unknown.
Image source: Palms Casino
Las Vegas Strip Has a New Mystery
A 2.2-acre piece of land located at Las Vegas Boulevard at Russell Road sold for about $12.8 million, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The land was sold by Lily Funds Founder Tom McManus, who did not identify the buyer, at the request of the new owner.
Lily Funds is based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and McManus told the paper he did not know why they wanted to be anonymous. The paper did a little digging and came up with more information, but not quite an answer.
"Property records show the land, between the Diamond Inn motel and the Little Church of the West wedding chapel, was bought by a limited liability company called Object Dash, which, as seen in state records, is managed by Object Dash Trust," wrote the Record-Journal's Eli Segal.
"Still, public records do not reveal who was behind the purchase."
A 2,2-acre property is slightly larger than one-and-a-half football fields. That's a big piece of land, but it's tiny by Las Vegas standards. MGM's Mandalay Bay occupies 118 acres while Caesars Palace comes in at 66.2, according to Las Vegas Advisor. Caesars Planet Hollywood, at 11.8 acres, comes in as the smallest plot of land for a major Strip casino.
Could the Purchase Be Cannabis-Related?
Las Vegas has fully legal cannabis, but technically marijuana products can't be sold on the Las Vegas Strip itself. That's also true for consumption lounges, which have recently been legalized in Las Vegas.
These rules are unlikely to change inside casinos or casino-owned properties because of federal rules regarding cannabis, but efforts are underway to allow a consumption-friendly hotel just-off the Strip.
The law does not specifically mention the Strip. It says simply that a cannabis consumption lounge must be 1,500 feet away from any gaming venue. This property now owned by the mystery buyer likely meets that standard.
"Gaming venues that seek to operate more than 15 slot machines and/or table games must acquire a nonrestricted gaming license from the state. The 1,500-foot mandate required under the Nevada cannabis consumption lounge law means the closest such a venue could be to a casino is nearly three-tenths of a mile," Casino.org reported.
It's unclear whether the site could be used for cannabis consumption, but the hot-button nature of that may be a reason not to reveal the owner's name at this time.
