LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Fresh off selling the land for the Major League Baseball stadium that will be home to the Athletics, Red Rock Resorts announced first-quarter earnings that show growth of about 8% compared to last year.
And the A’s land sale is expected to keep on giving.
“We think that the A’s (land sale) was a really good thing to increase the value of the remaining property,” Scott Kreeger, president of Red Rock Resorts, said during the earnings call. He also expects other benefits. “It’s great for tourism and creating demand for the hotel rooms.”
The sale is expected to in late 2023, company officials said.
Company officials would not say if there are remaining conditions on the sale, or what plans they had for the land that wasn’t included in the sale. The stadium site is on 48.6 acres at Dean Martin Drive and Tropicana Avenue, just north of Allegiant Stadium. Red Rock still controls about 50 acres near the A’s stadium, which could drop to 39.3 acres if the team exercises its option on an additional 8 acres at the site.
While the public waits to hear what might be in store there, Red Rock is driving toward the opening of the Durango Casino & Resort, expected in late 2023. It will be the first major resort opening in the valley since Circa opened downtown in 2020.
Red Rock Resorts Director Lorenzo Fertitta said the company is focused on the Durango project before committing to the next project, which could be a second phase at that property, the Inspirada property or any of the other resort projects that Red Rock has been planning.
“We just want to get Durango open,” Fertitta said. The performance of that property will determine the next step, but he is supremely confident of what will happen at Durango. He expects to be overrun by business, he said.
A major change since Circa opened is the fierce competition for employees, and Red Rock will be opening around the same time as the MSG Sphere and the Fontainebleau in the competition for workers.
Red Rock Resorts CEO Frank Fertitta also had some interesting observations on how Las Vegas growth has changed over the past decade. It’s still a flood from California, but it’s not the same.
“You have a totally different mix of people who are moving to run their business from here,” he said.
Rather than people just looking for work, this new influx is “bringing their wealth with them,” Frank Fertitta said.
And that positions Red Rock for a bright future as it develops new neighborhood resorts. Kreeger noted that all the properties the company is building around are in the fastest growing master-planned communities in the valley.
And employees of Strip casinos are Red Rock’s customers, too, Frank Fertitta noted.
Consolidated revenues of $433.6 million during the first quarter brought net income of $85.5 million. A profit measure known as EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) came in at $194.2 million up 8.6% over the first quarter of 2022. Red Rock also noted a margin of 44.8%, adding up to the best quarterly performance in company history.
The company’s Las Vegas resorts posted their second-best quarter ever.
Red Rock noted big increases in the profitability of hotel and food/beverage operations. Hotel revenue was up about 20%.
