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Tilman pauses on project
US Ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta has hit the pause button on his plans for a 43-story, 2,420-room hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip following his purchase of six acres of land in 2022.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a spokesperson for Fertitta Entertainment said the Houston billionaire shelved his Strip casino project over a conflict of interest with Wynn Resorts.
plans will stay on ice for as long as he owns shares in Wynn
Fertitta Entertainment’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel Steven Scheinthal on Wednesday stated Tilman’s Strip plans will stay on ice for as long as he owns shares in Wynn.
Fertitta owns 13 million shares in Wynn and according to Scheinthal sees a rival highbrow casino on the Las Vegas Boulevard as a “conflict of interest.” Fertitta’s legal head said the Houston Rockets owner was Wynn’s largest shareholder with a stake valued at over $1.4bn.
Wynn all the way
With only about 1.5 miles separating Wynn Las Vegas and Encore from Fertitta’s “project” property, the Review-Journal cited Scheinthal as stating that the billionaire now “has no plans to continue with the project” while he’s a major Wynn shareholder.
appears destined to run as surface parking lot
Fertitta bought the land for $270m with a high-rise hotel casino in mind. Instead, the spread appears destined to run as surface parking lot, “charging a minimum of $14.99 for up to three hours” for some time to come.
At the same time Fertitta bought the land in 2022 and secured approvals for his casino project, he acquired 6.9 million shares in Wynn Resorts to give him a 6.1 percent ownership stake.
While his casino-hotel project has since remained at parking lot level, Fertitta’s Wynn moves escalated, with the tycoon boosting his shares to 10 million in February to make him the company’s biggest shareholder. He bought more Wynn shares in early March to take them up to nearly 12.6 million, and later increased those to 13 million, according to a securities filing.
Time runs out
While Fertitta faced a deadline to start building his approved casino-hotel project, Clark County gave him an extension until October 2025 to break ground.
In December, however, then-President-elect Donald Trump nominated Fertitta for the US ambassadorship role in Italy. In March, Fertitta wrote to the State Department, promising to take steps to end conflicts of interest should the Senate appoint him ambassador.
Fertitta stated he’d resign his corporate positions, including the company he formed to buy the Strip property. His Italy ambassadorship was confirmed in April.
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