Zona de Azar USA – Fontainebleau’s Buyer Returns to Las Vegas after Failed Project 10 Years Ago

USA.- September 04, 2017 www.zonadeazar.com When the heated economy was showing signs of cracks a decade ago, New York developer Steve Witkoff teamed up on a supersized project in Las Vegas, a poster child for America’s real estate boom.

The group bought property just east of the Strip for $625 million, with plans for a hotel-casino development. But the market soon crashed, nothing was built, and lenders foreclosed on the site.

Witkoff is now back in Las Vegas — and he’s betting heavily on a failed, still-unfinished project from the bubble years.

He partnered with Miami investment firm New Valley to buy the partially built, mothballed Fontainebleau hotel for $600 million on Tuesday.

The seller, billionaire Carl Icahn, bought the north Strip property out of bankruptcy in 2010 for around $150 million, quadrupling his purchase price despite leaving the project largely untouched.

Towering more than 60 stories above Las Vegas Boulevard, the blue-tinted Fontainebleau is one of the tallest buildings in Las Vegas and a constant reminder of the valley’s wild real estate boom and devastating bust.

For now, it’s unclear what the new owners will do with it.

Witkoff’s namesake company said in a news release that it “identified numerous ways to unlock the significant underlying value of the property” but did not provide any details.

Editó: @_fonta   www.zonadeazar.com