Brookfield acquired the Hard Rock from Morgan\u2019s Hotel Group in 2011 in the wake of the economic crash. As the property\u2019s biggest creditor, it converted debt to equity and brought in Warner Hospitality to manage its external operations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Las Vegas Hard Rock is an entirely separate entity from all other Hard Rock-branded casinos, which are all Seminole Tribe-owned.<\/p>\n
While the off-Strip casino has struggled financially, ten years post-recession, Las Vegas is starting to boom again. In August, Carl Icahn sold the unfinished Fontainebleau for $600 million, representing a 300 percent return on his purchase investment in 2010, when he acquired it for $150 million.<\/p>\n
While Brookfield executives may be hoping to make a similarly spectacular ROI, potential buyer Virgin Hotels said in its 2010 business plan (the year it launched) that its goal was to \u201cacquire distressed properties in North America cheaply.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nVirgin Hotels currently operates just one hotel in Chicago, although further developments are underway in New York City and Nashville. If the Hard Rock deal goes through, it will be the first land-based casino in the Virgin portfolio, although the group launched an online casino, Virgin Games, in 2003. Virgin Games was acquired by Gamesys in 2013 and continues to operate using the Virgin brand under license.<\/p>\n
The Virgin proposal reportedly includes Bosworth Hospitality Partners and investment firm Juniper Capital Partners. All parties involved have declined to comment to the press about the deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas is up for sale and, if the rumors are to be believed, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson is mulling the purchase. Sources told the Las Vegas Review Journal\u00a0this weekend that Branson\u2019s Virgin Hotels is in \u201cadvanced negotiations\u201d to acquire the property, with a deal possible as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":67819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,10,18,1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Las Vegas Hard Rock Possible First Land-Based Casino for Virgin Hotels<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n