fontainebleau

Mother's Day at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

This May treat your mom to something special at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach as they celebrate Mother's Day by pampering her in every way. Start by checking in to a plush one-bedroom suite at a specially discounted rate, enjoy a day-long "Mother's Day Off" retreat at the Lapis Spa, brunch at Gotham Steak (Chef Alfred Portale's modern American steakhouse) complete with Mother's Day menu and unlimited mimosas, an array of goodies and gifts from Fontainebleau's chi chi patisserie and high-end fashion boutique, and finally a poolside Mother's Day menu for dinner at La Côte.

All the elements are separate so you can mix and match to create the perfect Mother's Day getaway for your mom, or why not join her and make it a mother/daughter weekend?

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Tags: fontainebleau, hotel deals, miami, miami beach, mothers day

Icahn Wins The Fontainebleau, Now What?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

It has sat at the end of the Las Vegas strip, big, blue and unfinished for a while but perhaps the Fontainebleau Las Vegas Resort will finally be completed now that casino-loving billionaire investor Carl Icahn has made the winning bid for the bankrupt resort. Tourism in Las Vegas has been sluggish recently and the Strip has a glut of new hotel rooms including those at the massive City Center project.

Reuters reports that court documents show that the only qualified bid received for the company was from Icahn Nevada Gaming Acquisition LLC. He had offered $156.5 million to buy the casino back in November, a bid which put Penn National Gaming Inc out of the running. Reuters interviewed Icahn who said his philosophy is to buy things when no one else wants them. It is a strategy that has served him well in the past. But Fountainebleau is a huge project, one that has already cost $2 billion and could cost another $1.5 billion to finish. It's got a nice Strip location but does Las Vegas need a 3,815-room resort right now? The Fontainebleau will also have a casino, spa, performing arts theater, condo-hotel units, retail space, conference space and nightclubs, lounges, restaurants and even a chocolate factory.

Icah was involved in a deal to buy the Tropicana's Atlantic City casino and we've been watching his machinations with Beal Bank to save the Trump Atlantic City casinos from ruin (and possibly from Trump himself). Icahn has played in Las Vegas before, buying low and selling high with the Stratosphere. In that case he bought the casino out of bankruptcy in 1998 and sold the property in 2007. If this proves anything it's that Icahn may be willing to wait a while to make a profit, a good thing because it will be a while before the Fontainebleau makes any money.

Tags: fontainbleau bankruptcy, FontainbleauBankruptcy, fontainebleau, las vegas, las vegas strip, LasVegas, LasVegasStrip

Will Carl Icahn Rescue The Fontainebleau?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

I've been following the fate of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas casino resort for a while now. It looks like the stalled project may have a new savior in the form of billionaire investor Carl Icahn. Icahn's Icahn Nevada Gaming LLC will be the opening or 'stalking horse' bidder in an auction of the resort after Penn National Gaming Inc. dropped out. Bloomberg News reports on the bidding war in court which led to Icahn offering $105 million, plus $51.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing besting Penn's offer of a total of $145 million. This means that the Icahn bid will be the one to beat.

The planned complex on the Las Vegas Strip is about 70 percent complete. It filed for bankruptcy in June and may cost around $1.5 billion to finish. Fontainebleau's sellers have asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol in Miami to auction the casino on January 21. Penn National Gaming had planned to finish Fontainebleau with an unidentified partner and to use the company's database of casino customers to help fill the casino with consumers. Icahn has a history of buying bankrupt casinos (including the Stratosphere in Las Vegas) and selling them for big profits. His entry into the fray may increase interest in the January auction and help ensure that someone eventually buys the casino and finishes the project.

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Tags: carl icahn, CarlIcahn, casino, fontainebleau, las vegas, las vegas strip, LasVegas, LasVegasStrip

Will Construction Resume On The Fontainebleau?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

In June the Fontainebleau project in Las Vegas filed for Chapter 11 but now the huge $3 billion property could end up being finished by its lenders. Previously the lenders had balked on continued spending and ended up freezing construction leaving the project in a state of undone stasis. Barbara E. Hernandez of BNET explains that any potential new owner would have to spend an additional $1.5 billion just to finish the 3,815-room resort. That's a number that is likely to scare off most investors. Instead of heading to a foreclosure auction where no one would make money, the lenders and owners are now working together to get the resort finished so it has a potential to make money someday (and stops being an unfinished eyesore along the Strip). Hernandez points out that there is a Finish Fontainebleau Las Vegas Facebook group which has over 400 fans. Depending on when the project is done it could capitalize on the resurgence of tourism to Las Vegas which is predicted to happen in the next year or so.

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Tags: fontainebleau, las vegas, LasVegas

Fontainebleau Las Vegas Goes Chapter 11

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

More trouble on the Las Vegas Strip. The Fontainebleau Las Vegas, a $3 billion resort under construction on the Strip has filed for bankruptcy-court protection. The resort has sued a group of lenders who reportedly backed out of an $800 million loan that was necessary to complete the project. Fontainebleau Las Vegas has said that is is filing a $3 billion lawsuit against its lenders for breaking their commitment to the project.

In related news, Crown Ltd., Australia's largest casino owner wrote down the value of its 19.6 percent equity stake in Fontainebleau Resorts LLC to zero. The carrying value of $22 million of debt in Fontainebleau is also expected to be written down to nothing and Crown doesn't plan to contribute anything else to the project.

The resort owners have said that they are still pursuing alternate financing to finish the project. For now though, construction has slowed to a crawl. The Fontainebleau would offer nearly 4,000 rooms in the area where the El Rancho and Algiers casinos were once located. it includes a casino, spa, performing arts theater, condo-hotel units, retail space, conference space and nightclubs, lounges, restaurants and even a chocolate factory. It was expected to open later this year. An animated rendering of the project is after the jump.

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Tags: chapter 11, Chapter11, fontainebleau, las vegas, LasVegas

Continue reading “Fontainebleau Las Vegas Goes Chapter 11”

Will Gambling Come To Miami Beach?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

The Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel is currently finishing up a $500 million renovation but could there be plans for a casino in the venerable Florida hotel? The Miami Herald reports on a recent push to have the Florida constitution amended to allow gambling at the proposed Miami Worldcenter and any hotel in Miami Beach with more than 800 rooms, a restriction that includes only the Fontainebleau. It's a natural leap considering that a Fontainebleau casino in Las Vegas is already under construction.

The new Fontainebleau in Miami Beach is set to open next month and follows the inclusive hotel paradigm of Las Vegas Strip hotels with 11 restaurants and bars, ample meeting space, 1,500 guest rooms, and a 40,000-square-foot spa. The developers have said that their plains for the Miami Beach hotel did not include casinos. The push for gambling in Miami comes from Miami developer who wants to put a casino in a commercial complex planned for the downtown area. But many feel that the Fontainebleau is the natural place for a casino in Miami Beach, it has the size and prestige to embrace gambling in a way that would add to the resort. And it could also bring a much needed infusion of cash to the South Florida resort economy.

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Tags: casino, fontainebleau, gambling, miami beach, MiamiBeach