LasVegasSands

Sands Casino In Pennsylvania Set To Open

The Las Vegas Sands Corporation has been having some financial trouble lately but the plans for the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania are going forward. The resort is scheduled to open to the public for the first time on May 22 with a grand opening on June 9, 2009.

The resort is located on the former site of the Bethlehem Steel plant and will have 3,000 slot machines, a 24-hour Cafe, an Irish pub, a marketplace featuring a wide selection of cuisines, and a celebrity chef steak house. The Sands Bethlehem has brought over 1,000 jobs to the region. Further development calls for an additional 2,000 slot machines, 200,000 square feet of retail space, and nearly 50,000 square feet of flexible multi-purpose space, which will allow the property to accommodate meetings, conventions, and special events. The master plan will eventually include a 300-room hotel, with the rooms modeled after those at the Palazzo Resort in Las Vegas as well as a National Museum of Industrial History, SteelStax - an arts and cultural center, and will also serve as the home for the local public broadcasting station, PBS 39 / WLVT.

This news come just as Sands Chairman and Chief Executive Sheldon Adelson announced this week that the company expects to avoid a debt default through cutting costs, selling two retail malls at the Venetian Macau resort and the Four Seasons hotel in Macau. If Adelson isn't able to find some more money the ambitious future plans for the Bethlehem project may be delayed.

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Las Vegas Sands In Trouble

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

More economic trouble has come to the Las Vegas Strip. Las Vegas Sands, the casino empire run by billionaire Sheldon Adelson which includes The Venetian and The Palazzo, is facing a tough decision. The company must either immediately raise new capital, cut development or perhaps both in order to satisfy loan agreements. Stock shares fell by a dramatic one third on the news that the company may break its loan agreements.

The stock's prices have plummeted over the past year dropping Adelson's personal wealth dramatically. Once his shares were worth around $30 billion but with the latest drop his stocks are worth less than $2 billion. It is estimated that the long-term debt at the Sands is $8.8 billion. The Sands currently has projects in Las Vegas, Pennsylvania, Macau and Singapore. Casino revenues that might have continued to fuel these projects in better times are also dropping quickly. Even the convention business, the bread and butter of Las Vegas has also dropped off as companies cut off all unnecessary expenses.

It's a tough break for Adelson, who worked as a financial adviser and real estate investor and created the technology trade show Comdex before getting into the hotel business in 1989 when the bought the Sands. The 4,027-room Venetian and the 3,066-suite Palazzo are two of the most popular places to stay on the Strip. As the AP reports Adelson controls 70 percent of Las Vegas Sands personally and through family trusts and so his fate is inextricably linked with the fate of the Las Vegas Sands but at this point it is not known if he will use his personal wealth to bail out the company.

UPDATE: The Las Vegas Sands has suspended their building projects on the Cotai Strip in Macau, laying off a potential 11,000 workers.

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