When Penn Entertainment Inc. CEO Jay Snowden flew into town for the grand opening of the M Resort’s new 375-room hotel tower in December, he told guests attending the ribbon-cutting how excited he was to see all the growth in the neighborhood.
“I love all the rooftops that are going up on the south end of the valley,” Snowden said. “It’s very noticeable when you’re flying in.”
New rooftops, of course, are the key to growth in the casino industry in Southern Nevada and Penn’s $206 million investment in the M nearly doubled hotel capacity there. The property also added convention space with that opening.
Other casino developers have taken notice.
Not 3 miles away from M is the future site of what tentatively is being called Inspirada Station, the new Station Casinos property planned by Red Rock Resorts, at Via Inspirada and Bicentennial Parkway in the Seven Hills area of Henderson.
Meanwhile, Anthony Marnell III, the original developer of M 17 years ago, says he plans to build a new property to compete with the resort he sold to Penn in 2010 that gave the massive Wyomissing, Pennsylvania-based regional casino company its first foothold in Southern Nevada.
Marnell said his new project, which he doesn’t expect to break ground on for three to five years, would span about 35 acres on the northeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and St. Rose Parkway, across the street from M. The project will include 600 rooms as well as a casino, food hall, entertainment lounge, meeting and banquet space, and pool deck, according to a conceptual site plan filed with the city of Henderson.
The big plans for west Henderson and southern Las Vegas could make that part of the region the next big expansion for gaming in the Las Vegas Valley. Industry watchers and analysts say other parts of the metro also have growth potential.
Other growth areas
They point out there’s potential for gaming growth in southwest Las Vegas, the Boulder Highway portion of Henderson and to the northwest in the Skye Canyon community, which will have 6,500 homes at full build-out.
“Southern Nevada has seen several interesting shifts in the post-COVID environment,” said Amanda Belarmino, an assistant professor at UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hospitality.
“The southwest and west Henderson have been underserved areas, which indicates they may continue to see increased interest from casino companies,” she said. “However, Centennial Hills (near Skye Canyon) is also an underserved area, with several hundred houses far from Santa Fe Station and with relatively few dining and drink options.”
Brendan Bussmann, managing partner of Las Vegas-based B Global, agrees.
“As the valley continues to grow, I think you will continue to see specific developments, not necessarily bigger zones, that meet underserved areas of the locals market including Inspirada, Skye Canyon and Lake Las Vegas/Cadence (communities),” Bussmann said. “Part of this has been about a longer-term strategy to plan for growth in the valley and it’s just a matter of activating those sites when it is right for development.”
Josh Swissman, founding partner and managing director of Las Vegas-based GMA Consulting, said west Henderson and the southwest valley are likely growth zones, but that the northwest valley in the Skye Canyon area may be an even bigger opportunity in the near term.
“There’s two directions where growth can occur in that area, straight north from Skye Canyon and development even beyond that, or west towards Mount Charleston,” Swissman said.
“Years ago, you could drive in that area and you wouldn’t see any houses on your way to the Mount Charleston Lodge. It seemed you would drive forever before seeing anything under construction. Now, it’s five minutes. That’s why I’m thinking that area has a head of steam.”
Swissman contends that the neighborhoods around Skye Canyon are underserved by the casino industry with Santa Fe Station far to the south and Aliante far to the east. He said Station Casinos acquired land in the Skye Canyon area years ago for future development, just as they did in southwest Las Vegas with Durango and in west Henderson with the future Inspirada Station.
Station Casinos owns about 48 acres in northwestern Las Vegas off of Interstate 11 near the Kyle Canyon Road interchange, according to Red Rock Resorts’ annual report. It is about 7 miles northwest of Santa Fe Station.
“Station has the ability to determine population growth centers before they really start to fire up and then purchase strategic land parcels in those areas. They’ve done that time and time again,” Swissman said. “Maybe they’ve got lightning in a bottle again with their land holdings out there in the Skye Canyon area.”
Boyd Gaming Corp., well diversified as not only a regional casino company but a big player in the Las Vegas locals market, in March opened the Cadence Crossing Casino in Henderson on Boulder Highway and has a definitive connected strategy centered on the growth of the nearby Cadence neighborhood. Company executives have said they plan to match their gaming expansion plans to neighborhood growth, eventually adding hotel rooms and more space at Cadence Crossing, which replaced the old Jokers Wild property.
Henderson Mayor Michelle Romero, also a member of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors, attended the Cadence Crossing opening and said the city is on board with casino industry growth, whether its near Cadence or in west Henderson.
“West Henderson is always going to be where more of the growth happens simply because there’s more vacant land out there, and it’s open for new development,” Romero said. “You’ll see more of renovations of existing projects in other parts of our city. As things age, you’ll see us improving those and doing more infill development.”
In the next few years, Marnell, chairman and CEO of real estate and casino firm Marnell Companies, will be setting his sights on the area around the M.
“When we broke ground on the M, that part of Las Vegas and Henderson was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. And then the recession really put the brakes on that,” he said.
“I’d say between what Michael (Gaughan), one of the pioneers of the south Strip, did at the South Point and myself, we know that market, what the people want. I think with time, there’ll be enough room for more. Obviously, I think the expansion of the M is a great sign with its new tower.”
“With the housing development going on in the area, there’s no reason why there can’t be more expansion there and at Inspirada,” Marnell said.
He’s encouraged with how successful nearby Durango has been. That property, located several miles south and west, has moved the market needle substantially, according to Nevada Gaming Control Board gaming win statistics since opening in December 2023.
Durango’s success has buoyed Station Casinos and Scott Kreeger, president of Red Rock Resorts, said the company for years has been focused on the long game.
“We have probably the largest land bank of developable acreage of all the casino companies and certainly in Las Vegas,” Kreeger said in an interview at Sunset Station. “We believe in Las Vegas. We’ve all lived here for a majority of our lives. We’ve seen the growth, and we’re sure that that growth is going to continue into the future.”
Station strategy
He said most of the land banked for future development is close to freeway exits, making the properties easily accessible for customers. And if you look at the existing footprint of Station properties, it’s a tried and true success formula — Palace Station off Interstate 15, Boulder Station, Sunset Station and Santa Fe Station off Interstate 11, and Green Valley Ranch, Durango and Red Rock Resort off the 215 Beltway.
“We acquired developable gaming sites that were located on the 215 Beltway adjacent to off-ramps with the anticipation that as these areas grew that we could continue to grow with the city,” Kreeger said. “We have six developable sites that are actually spread pretty evenly in every major kind of geographic zone of the valley and predominantly around the 215 Beltway. Most of our sites that we have available today are in a feasibly developable state as they sit.”
What’s next for Station? Kreeger said that hasn’t been decided.
“Certainly the Inspirada project is towards the top of our list,” he said. “We like where it’s located, right in the city center of the Inspirada master plan development. We’re anticipating that there’ll be major arterial roadways brought in from I-15, directly into our site.”
In addition to the Inspirada location, the company’s land bank includes property at the north end of Fifth Street in North Las Vegas, another about 7 miles north of Santa Fe Station that the company calls its Skye Canyon site and another at Las Vegas Boulevard and Cactus Avenue it calls its Cactus site.
Competition?
While gaming industry experts say Station’s land bank tends to discourage rivals from competing with it in those areas, Kreeger said that isn’t the primary strategy and they welcome competition.
“I’m not sure we want to keep competition out,” Kreeger said. “We respect all the other operators in the local Las Vegas environment. I think they all do a great job.
“But I think Station Casinos has a unique offering that’s a little different than our competition. At the same time, I think we have acquired all of the developable, entitled gaming sites left outside of the resort corridor.”
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
