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Crown Ltd. Gives Up on Monster Vegas Casino
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA --
Crown Ltd. of Australia announced that plans to build the tallest hotel and casino on the LasVegas Strip had been abandoned. James Packer, principal owner of Crown and reportedly the richest man in Australia, had hoped to erect a 5000-room hotel, resort, and casino, costing over $5 billion, which would tower over the other Strip properties.
Crown had been paying the owners of the selected property, at the site of the former Wet'n'Wild Waterpark, a monthly sum to retain the option to develop the land, but with the formal revelation that the project had been scrapped, the payments have stopped. Crown will have to write off the $42 million already invested.
Crown also owns almost 20% of Fontainebleu Resorts LLC, and the decision to cut losses concerning the Crown project has industry experts speculating on the future of the Fontainebleu casino under construction on the Strip, expected to cost $2.9 billion.
The failure to pursue the project was blamed on tight credit markets, which made financing difficult to find and exorbitantly expensive to pay back. In addition, rumors floated that Crown was told by potential creditors to find an equity partner to secure the loans, which Crown failed to deliver.
Hopefully Crown can now allocate funds to keep its Fontainebleu vision alive; better to have one completed and operating mega-casino than two unfinished, half-built failures.
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