For Phil Ruffin, timing is everything

In recent years, Phil Raffin, the owner of Treasure Island, has proposed the MGM Resorts International to acquire circus circus Las Vegas. But everyone refused.

"I didn't have the opportunity to bet," Raffin recalls. "$ 500 million, $ 550 million, $ 500 million, $ 550 million.

8 4-yea r-old Raffin learned to be patient. He was benefited from the sharp sense of time in his career in Las Vegas.

In 1997, a businessman in Kansas, 319th and $ 3 billion in the 40 0-person number of Forbes magazine, purchased a $ 165 million Frontier Hotel Casino. Ten years later, he sold the ruins of the strip for $ 1. 2 billion.

His sense of time was resumed in October. Investment companies have basically said that Raffin, MGM, to achieve circus circus as part of the general casino business, and strengthen the balance sheet of major casinos.

Raffin, who acquired MGM Treasure Island for $ 755 million in 2009, trades Naebeno. His 825 million dollars offered at a handshake event with the MGM chairman and General Manager Jim Meren.

Last week, he acknowledged that he paid an overconnected casino hotel. The conspiracy contained $ 662. 5 million cash and $ 162. 5 million bonds, which were in 2024.

Raffin said in an interview in his office in the Treasure Peninsula, "This was the first offer to his family, probably more than all other offerings." "They had other offerings, but (buyers) had no opportunity to have a license for more than a year," he added, adding MGM to pay too much money. "I have obtained permission since 1997. I was in our hands."

Gambling regulation authorities confirmed their position in December, and the conspiracy was closed for two months after the announcement of it.

The 25 acres of land paintings, adjacent to the resort area, were purchased, including 33 acres of Sugar Boulevard and strip horns used as a festival platform. Raffin currently owns a 10 2-acres land in the northern part of the strip (no huge share of them yet).

The acquisition was performed at the time when the north side of the strip was expanded and formed by more than $ 8 billion.

"This is the last part of the land. I have a better way to share the northern part and see the better way, Raffin said.

Sahara-owner, Alex-Meluero, had more than $ 100 million to reconstruct his own resort. The Las Vegas Conference Center expansion work ($ 2 billion) will be conducted in 2021. At the end of the year, resort World Las Vegas Resort Resort Ensemble, located south of Raffin's owned land, will be released for $ 4. 3 billion.

New York developer Steven Witkoff plans to spend about $2 billion to renovate the closed Fontenablus at the Drew Las Vegas, opening in December 2022.

"Ruffin's first spot will be in the north part of the Strip, which is due for major transformation in the coming years," said Brendan Bassman, a partner at Las Vegas Company Global Market Advisors. "The property will benefit from other developments, including the convention center expansion, and has every opportunity to grow."

The east side of the Porte Cochere at Circus Circus, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent)

Ruffin's Business Empire

Circus Circus will complement Ruffin's real estate holdings of shopping centers, office parks, hotels and more, totaling about 4 million square feet.

"The ability to breathe new life into long-standing real estate on the Strip from an old-time Las Vegas perspective is just part of it," Bussmann said of Ruffin.

Nationally, Ruffin is known as President Donald Trump's business partner, and he has hotel rooms and apartments in the Trump International Non-Grate complex in Las Vegas. Ten years ago, the future president visited Las Vegas for the entire tower construction process, and Ruffin even appeared in an episode of the show The Student. There were plans to build a second tower, but the plan was scrapped during the economic crisis.

Ruffin already owned a casino when Frontier set its sights on the Vagamus casino in 1997. The Erardi family, which was on the Strip, was embroiled in a long labor dispute with the culinary workers' union 226 and three other unions.

The strike lasted six years and four months, the longest in U. S. history, but it ended when Ruffin took control of the casino. He renovated the room, which was once part of the Casino Howard Hughes Empire and a former showroom for artists Siegfried & Roy. He gave the casino back its name, New Frontier.

When he sold the casino and 36 hectares of land from an Israeli development group in 2007, before the economic downturn began, the deal was the most expensive in Strip history, at $33. 3 million per acre. Today, the land is owned by Wynn Resorts, but it sits vacant after two failed attempts to build on it by two different groups.

Ruffin says one of the reasons he wants to buy an existing resort is to take another look at current construction costs.

"Have you ever seen a newly built price? It's not on the chart," Raffin said. "In this land, the room on the second floor costs $ 2 million per room. This is $ 2 billion. It is immeasurable."

He returned to the gambling industry two years after the introduction of Frontier.

At the end of the recession, the MGM Resorts, which had been struggling with cash flow to complete a 9 billion dollar city center, made a transaction with Raffin, who agreed to pay $ 775 million to the Treasure Peninsula. The company reduced the initial transaction amount by $ 20 million, with Raffin's needed cash payments by $ 100 million and 600 million dollars.

Raffin calls Marren as a "very intelligent man" in a "excellent manager." Marren also praised Raffin. He respects him as a partner and as a negotiator.

"In the electric shock message to the MGM resort, Merren said," Of course, these are big and difficult transactions, but in mind that Phil and I are sitting, talking about the situation, and then everything goes smoothly. The precedent that can be left indicates mutual trust and respect between us, like Kirkkorian, the founder of MGM, is all for a handshake. I feel the same. "

For the past 13 years, Raffin has been constructed by Steve Win and has subsequently renamed the resort to Ti. The free pirate live show held at the resort entrance ended in 2013, and restaurants and shops opened. Since then, he has renovated the hotel room and added other restaurants, including the sports bar.

In December 2018, Raffin acquired a casino Miami, a slo t-only casino near the city international airport, less than 20 minutes after Miami's downtown. The facility is adjacent to the high ally front and includes a 2 1-hectares development site.

This time, a plot also occurred at a good timing. It was hit in Florida before recovery 3 was enforced in January 2019. This initiative prohibits the opening of a new casino and expanding the gambling business unless voters support. William Hill vs. is a facility for Casino Miami for Parici Cheer Betting, and Raffin reduces the gaming tax to 35 %, 5 times more than 5 times the tax rate paid to Casino prizes in Nevada. Then the hotel said it would add this.

On Wednesday, January 29, 2020, a circus circus playpit. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent)

Circus circus intention

Merchant's circus circus has doubled the number of numbers that Raffin checks on the strip. There are 2, 500 people in TI and 2, 200 for Circus Circus. This can integrate internal services such as wage payments for both facilities in TI.

Raffin highly appreciated the lon g-term potential of the circus circus, which was built in 1968 by Jay Salno and was owned by William Bennett and William Penington in 1974. The couple created the facility in a home entertainment space, providing a wide range of spectators on carnival-arcades and circus live performances on the second floor.

MGM acquired a casino for $ 7. 9 billion in 2005 as a merger with the Mandalay Resort Group, but has never been a central point in the company's interest. Circus circus was not included in the MGM program, which creates a commercial parking lot on the strip, nor the player's approval program.

But all resorts were the same route. For the first nine months of 2019, circus circus profits were $ 196, $ 5 million, and in fact, almost 2 or 4 % of 2018. However, it was the smallest supplier out of $ 4 and 4 billion of Strip Casino.

In December, Raffin told the Gambling Committee that the circus circus was actually planning a $ 50 million currency stream per year.

"This is a home business and we have a big size," Raffin says. "January and February are the time when children go to high school, we are not in a hurry. In March, we start to gain strength and have a jackpot in summer."

Raffin has all the intentions to improve the resort's abilities. The Sports Book has been transferred to William Hill U. S., and a game zone like a stadium that succeeded on Treasure Island is added. In December, restaurant critics promise the Steak House Restaurant, which is evaluated as one of the best band facilities.

He plans to rebuild the adjacent slot a fan casino. According to his text, the small facilities used to make a million dollars a month.

"The previous popularity was not enough to justify the rebuilding, so I want to resume," Raffin said. "The conference hall will improve this area and will welcome many guests. We will see a pretty good volume."

Circus circus roof parks will be renovated for the first time in a long time. "We specify some parts necessary to increase the number of visitors.

Ruffin plans to close the car park and turn the 10 hectares into a resort with a pool and beach. In addition, he won't need to build a theater for Cirque du Soleil, which he announced in December.

The show will take place in a two-story, 1, 000-seat theater built from planks from 1979, which Ruffin had no idea would be renovated and modernized when he bought the resort.

"We didn't know anything, we just found out," Ruffin said. Las Vegas architectural firm Bergman Walls & Associates is developing the theater and pool project.

The resort's hotel rooms are being renovated, but Ruffin says he doesn't plan to make any major investments. He says the circus guests are valuable customers who require a lower daily rate. A search of various hotel booking sites showed the hotel's average price per night ranged from $19 to $60, depending on whether it was midweek, weekend, or holiday.

"You could remake all those numbers to Wynn quality, but you wouldn't get a penny and you'd drive away all the customers," Ruffin said. "At Circus Circus, it's a different demographic than Ti. There's always low-price demand on the Strip (nighttime numbers)."

He also sees value in one-off festival venues, where the venues are rented out to groups, but the tenants pay for labor and expenses for the event. He said Amazon would pay $50, 000 per day for a multi-day event in December.

Busman said Ruffin's plan "would bring immediate results to Circus Circus, which has been stagnant for the past few years."

Friendship with Trump

Ruffin remains a friend and supporter of Trump. In June 2018, when Trump arrived in Las Vegas to campaign for the Republican candidate, Ruffin and his family arranged a short trip on Air Force One, the secret Boeing 747 plane used by the president.

Journalists photographed him disembarking from the side of Air Force One with his wife, Alexandra, and their two children. Trump served as Ruffin's chauffeur at his wedding in 2008.

According to Ruffin, he spent New Year's Eve with the president at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, where everyone was thinking about the impeachment process.

He's been through hell. He said he could handle it, but his family is tough," Ruffin said. "All the charges will be cleared from him and he'll win in a collapse. I think the Democrats have swallowed a poison pill on this issue. They're wrong. You can imagine what he could do just to take back the House."

Howard Stutz is a free-tank reporter for the Nevada Independent and executive editor of the CDC Gaming Report. He has been a journalist in Nevada for 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow Howard Stutz on Twitter