Wynn Resorts pays $336m for 38 acres in Las Vegas

Wynn Resorts has reached an agreement to purchase approximately 38 acres of land on the Las Vegas Strip directly across from Wynn Las Vegas. The sales price was $336 million.

The seller was not disclosed.

The purchase includes the34-acre site of the former New Frontier, formerly the Alon Resort site, as well as four additional acres connected to the site.

The agreement completes a unique assembly of contiguous real estate of approximately 280 acres that spans from the Las Vegas Convention Center on Paradise Road from the east, to Industrial Road on the west. The combined frontage on the Las Vegas Strip is more than 3,500 feet, including rights to approximately 1,000 acre feet of water. It is adjacent to nearly 6 million square feet of convention and exhibition space. The average cost of the full assembly of 280 acres is less than $3 million per acre.

The future development of the land will further change tourist visitation patterns in Las Vegas drawing more visitors to the north end of Las Vegas Blvd and its collection of luxury resorts, including the existing Wynn Las Vegas and the Paradise Park development slated to begin construction in January 2018 on the site of the former Wynn Golf Course.

Approximately 36 million visitors have traveled to Las Vegas year-to-date, a –1.4 percent change compared to 2016 statistics, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority blamed the drop to trip cancellations and postponements following the Oct. 1 mass shooting.

Bookings plunged much further, with domestic bookings down 21 percent and international bookings down 16 percent, according to travel data analytics company ForwardKeys. And data released by the Nevada Gaming Control Board show casinos on the Strip took in almost $528.7 million from gamblers in October, approximately $34 million less than last year’s number.

Commercial real estate investment sales volume in Las Vegas during the first three quarters of 2017 reached $1.21 billion in 171 sales totaling 8.4 million square feet at an average price per square foot of $144.73. This puts 2017 on pace to be the biggest year for investment sales in a decade in terms of sales volume if it can exceed the approximately $1.4 billion spent in both 2014 and 2015, according to Colliers International. Investment sales volume growth was –48.3 percent for industrial properties, 98.7 percent for office properties, 116.4 percent for single-tenant retail properties and 5 percent for shopping centers in the third quarter of 2017. 

The third quarter of 2017 in Southern Nevada saw an economy that was shifting from recovery to expansion mode. Taxable sales and employment continued to increase in a Valley poised for the addition of two professional sports franchises, a major expansion of its convention center and three potential new hospitality venues on the “Strip,” concludes Colliers.