- Las Vegas Sands shells out $87.5M for first down payment on two Macao casino lots priced at $380M
- Donald J. Trump and daughter Ivanka settle for 10% of bankrupt Trump Entertainment Resorts
- Buyers from Canada, Italy and Ocala, FL dominate bulk condo deals in Greater Miami
- Deutsche Bank takes a bath on 3,000-room Cosmopolitan Casino-Hotel in Las Vegas
- Vegas condos starting to move but Trump International hurting
- Last luxury high-rise in L.A.'s Wilshire Corridor to debut Dec. 5
Sheldon Adelson
The total price of the two lots is $380 million, Adelson disclosed in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The three operating casino resorts Las Vegas Sands owns in Macao are the Venetian Macao, Sands Macao and the Plaza Sands Macao. The corporation also owns Cotai Arena, described as Macao's largest entertainment site and one of the largest convention and exhibition halls in Asia.
Macau Venetian Hotel
When completed, Adelson said he expected the Cotai Strip development to have over 20,000 hotel rooms, about 1.6 million square feet of meeting, convention and exhibition space, over two million square feet of retail malls, six theaters and other undetermined amenities.
Please see related Real Estate Channel article: "SPECIAL REPORT: Macao Heating Up Again as Developers Gamble on Erecting Billion-Dollar Casinos, Nov. 16, 2009.
(LAS VEGAS, NV) -- Donald J. Trump and his daughter, Ivanka, principals in Trump Entertainment Resorts, have settled what would have been a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against their creditors.
Under the settlement's terms, the Trumps have agreed to accept common stock and warrants worth 10 percent of the reorganized company when Trump Entertainment Resorts emerges from Chapter 11 at an undetermined date. The Trumps at one time had owned 100 percent of the company.
The settlement also allows the three Atlantic City, NJ casinos to continue using the Trump name. Trump will also be permitted to use the Trump name on other gambling ventures in states that do not compete directly with New Jersey, according to published reports.
The three Atlantic City casinos are Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino and Trump Marina Hotel Casino.
The deal was reached with 61 percent of the bondholders. The settlement also would end the Trumps' litigation against the bondholders. Trump was pursuing more than $100 million of claims against the holders.
Before the deal was reached, the bondholders had increased their offer to $225 million, according to published reports. The Trumps were offering $114 million with Beal Bank of Dallas.
The trial had been set for January in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, NJ.
(MIAMI, FL) -- Buyers from Canada, Italy and Ocala, FL have paid a total $39 million in three separate bulk condo purchases totaling 224 units covering nearly 270,000 square feet in the Greater Miami markets of Miami Beach, Aventura and Kendall.
Since Oct. 30, out-of-town bulk buyers have acquired 470 condo units totaling more than 670,000 square feet, according to the latest data from Condo Vultures LLC of Bal Harbour, FL.
Another deal for a construction note also traded at a discount off of the $120.5 million balance and the $28 million in 'capitalized interest.'
Peter Zalewski
The bulk buying volume in Greater Miami pushes the total number of new or completely renovated condo units transacted this year to date to 1,370 units covering more than 1.7 million square feet, according to the Condo Vultures Bulk Deals Database.
Zalewski says at least three more deals are under contract and ready to close by year end.
"Many lenders are opting to take their write downs this year as problem commercial real estate loans loom in 2010," he notes. He adds "these condo bulk deals are basically huge short sales" that lenders have approved.
(LAS VEGAS, NV) -- Deutsche Bank has written down almost $850.000 on the financially failing, under-construction 3,000-room Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, according to The Manchester Guardian. But the bank and its partners say they will hold on to the property and make it successful.
The Frankfurt, Germany-based bank inherited the 8.5-acre, two-tower complex after developer Ian Bruce Eichner defaulted on his construction loan soon after breaking ground in 2006 on the 600-foot glass-clad towers.
The Cosmopolitan's over-budget project is estimated to be at $3.9 billion, up from an initial $1.8 billion, The Guardian reports. The Cosmopolitan was scheduled to open in mid-2008. It is now expected to open at an undetermined date in 2010.
Deutsche Bank decided to continue funding the casino-hotel to avoid a fire sale in Las Vegas's current down market, according to the newspaper.
Gross revenue at Strip properties fell more than 12 percent in the first nine months of this year, and dropped by 11 percent in 2008, according to Bloomberg. Residential property values have plunged by 55 percent since August 2006.
When completed, the Cosmopolitan will host a 75,000-square-foot casino, VIP access to a rooftop beach club, restaurants, nightclubs and one-bedroom condo-hotel units, according to the project's web site.
(LAS VEGAS, NV) -- SalesTraq, a Las Vegas-based research group, reports sales in the local high-rise condo-hotel-casino market rose 7 percentage points in the third quarter, but closings at the Trump International have been almost nonexistent.
About 23 percent of the 1,282 units at Trump, a condo hotel, have closed through the third quarter, the same percentage as in the second quarter.
"The condo-hotel market especially has been hurt by buyers' inability to close because of the lack of financing and because the concept is struggling across the valley," according to the Las Vegas Sun. "Condo-hotel owners share revenue generated by hotel room rentals with the operator, but drops in visitor volume and room rates have cut into that."
The Sun reports Steve Bottfeld, executive vice president of Marketing Solutions, says the failure of units closing at Trump centers on its location next to the Fashion Show mall. Nearby Echelon Place halted its casino development, and other projects were delayed, thus detracting from it, Bottfeld told the newspaper.
Trump, however, "can get a shot in the arm from the opening of CityCenter, which should bring in more visitors and make the Trump easier to sell," Bottfeld says.
"CityCenter is going to have a greater impact than the Mirage did in 1989 and Bellagio did in 1998," he says.
The Sun reports that in Las Vegas 45 percent of all high-rise units have been sold through Sept. 30. That's up from 38 percent at the end of June.
Palms Place, another condo hotel, saw closings rise from 58 percent to 62 percent at the end of the third quarter.
At the third tower at Panorama, closings jumped from 38 percent in the second quarter to 64 percent in the third. Juhl rose from 6 percent to 10 percent, and One Las Vegas went from 15 percent to 17 percent. Newport Lofts in downtown Las Vegas rose from 67 percent to 70 percent and Allure rose 1 percentage point to 53 percent.
Turnberry Towers remained at 52 percent; Streamline Towers stalled at 10 percent; Sky Las Vegas stayed at 80 percent and Queensridge remained at 62 percent.
(LOS ANGELES, CA) -- Carlyle Residences, the last luxury high-rise condo community to be built on the Wilshire Corridor in Los Angeles, will show off its wares to some of the nation's leading real estate brokers.
The guests will tour the 24-story, 78-unit crescent-shaped luxury condominium tower and meet celebrity resident and talk show personality Larry King. The condos range in size from 2,700 square feet to 5,000 square feet, each with its own private elevator entrance.
"We're delighted The Carlyle is now 100 percent complete," says Tom Elliot, chief operating officer of the developer, Elad Properties West. "The timing is perfect, given the slight upswing in the super luxury real estate market."
Elliot didn't disclose unit pricing but L.A. celebrity-oriented publications are reporting units were initially priced from $2.9 million, with the penthouses offered between $12 million-$15 million.
But price reductions are in the works, according to published reports. A two-bedroom unit that was priced at $3,209,800 dropped this week to $2,405,000. A three-bedroom that was priced at $6,245,20 is now at $5,050,000.
The Multiple Listing Service reports the number of properties sold in Los Angeles County is up 10 percent, year to date over 2008, but properties over $3 million are down slightly from this time last year.
New York City-based Elad Properties recently opened Elad Properties West headquarters to add to their portfolio valued at about $7.5 billion, according to Elliot.
Leave a comment