Scientologist Moves From Cosmopolitan To North End Of Vegas Strip

The Frontier And Encore Las Vegas — The Frontier

Almost a year ago it was rumored that James Packer would be buying the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Like many rumors in Las Vegas that turned out not to be true in the end. Packer might have been sniffing around Cosmo but didn’t end up making the purchase. Earlier this year the Cosmopolitan was sold to Blackstone.

Last week rumor had it that James Packer wasn’t done with Las Vegas when Bloomberg reported that James Packer is seeking a return to Las Vegas. Late last night and this morning those rumors were confirmed as James Packer purchased the land across the street from Wynn and Wynn and Encore.

Australian billionaire James Packer said he has acquired controlling interest in a nearly 35-acre Strip land parcel and will form a company to build a hotel-casino on the site with former Wynn Las Vegas President Andrew Pascal and investment firm Oaktree Capital Management.

James Packer and Crown Resorts have a pretty bad history in Las Vegas. If he was making this plan alone I wouldn’t think that this new development on the New Frontier land would actually happen. His partnership with Andrew Pascal says that development is possible. Pascal was previously President at Wynn and is very respected in the casino community.

Details on what the property haven’t been released yet but they’re looking at a potential opening as soon as 2018. With the former president of Wynn involved it’s easy to guess the property will have good and fair gaming and will target a more upscale customer than average.

I’d love to see more development on the north end of the Vegas Strip but, like SLS Las Vegas, I’ll believe it when I see it. I look forward to seeing what comes from this. The more casinos on the Vegas Strip the merrier!

Like I said last time I wrote about him, I don’t care that James Packer is a scientologist it just makes for a fun headline and makes me giggle.

Photo: Vegas Chatter