Hard Rock Casino Purchase Approved
One of the splintered offshoots of the Hard Rock brand of casinos, hotels, and restaurants officially has a new operator, freshly approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission. Thursday, commissioners voted to approve Morgans Hotel Group, in conjunction with DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, as owners and mangers of the casino portion of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Morgans had purchased the property in February for $770 million, but Golden Gaming Incorporated has been running the casino under a contract with the gaming commission until Morgans received final approval.
Included in the purchase of the Las Vegas complex are the rights to the Hard Rock brand in areas of the U.S. west of the Mississippi River, as well as the countries of Australia, Israel, Venezuela, and Brazil. The Hard Rock name, as well as existing properties, elsewhere in the world is controlled by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which paid almost $1 billion for the package in 2006.
Morgans CEO Fred Kleisner indicated some changes were due at the Las Vegas casino. A $750 million renovation is expected, doubling the size of the property and adding almost a thousand rooms. "Morgans Hotel Group is a perfect fit for Las Vegas and the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino," Kleisner said. "We are in strategy and reach and style and vibe and edge, if you will, we're quintessentially Las Vegas."
Kleisner also noted the importance of drawing local customers, giving notice that Hard Rock would pursue demographics left behind by Strip megacasinos in their obsessive, tunnel-visioned pursuit of the high-rollers. While elite players will certainly be welcomed, middle-class travelers and local residents will be targeted as the Strip continues to largely ignore their needs and desires.
