Icahn Enterprises L.P. announced Tuesday that it completed the sale of the unfinished Fontainebleau in Las Vegas, according to NASDAQ.com.
The development property located at 2755 South Las Vegas Boulevard was sold to an affiliate of The Witkoff Group LLC and New Valley LLC for $600 million.
IEP originally acquired the Fontainebleau for $148 million in February 2010.
However, the 68 story project went into bankruptcy before it was finished. The partially developed casino has been an eyesore sitting idle on the strip since 2008.
It’s only been a few weeks since decorative wraps went up on the exposed steel and concrete at the bottom of the property.
So now that it’s been sold, what’s going to happen to the Fontainebleau?
County Commission Chair Steve Sisolak says he believes the new developer will finish the hotel-casino project.
“I’ve talked to the developer one time, and they had to get some more,” said Steve Sisolak, Clark County Commission Chair. “In fact, yesterday had to get some more documents signed, and transfer the development agreement, and now they’re going to move forward with the, my understanding, completion of the project that was a decade ago when it began.”
Sisolak says construction could resume rather quickly.
Structural integrity tests have been ongoing on the property, and Sisolak says, as far as he knows, the permits are up to date.
That means any renewal process likely wouldn’t take long, and he got the impression from the developer that they want to begin as soon as possible.
So this could be the latest piece in an apparent construction boom on the north end of the Las Vegas Strip in the last six months.
