VICI Properties is a New York-based real estate investment trust. When you think of the casino hotels on the famous Las Vegas Strip, you don’t immediately think of it. However, it is the largest owner of gaming-related real estate on the Strip.
She should soon consolidate this enviable status. On Thursday, December 1, 2022, it announced that it would acquire the 49.9% of the Mandalay Bay and the MGM Grand that it still lacked from Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust.
A $4.27 billion transaction
During January 2020, MGM Resorts International Group announced the sale of its Mandalay Bay and MGM Grand casino hotels to a joint venture jointly controlled by MGM Growth Properties and Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust for $4.6 billion.
As VICI Properties acquired MGM Growth Properties for $17.2 billion last April, the trust inherited its 50.1% stake in the Mandalay Bay and MGM Grand gaming properties in the process. It was still missing the 49.9% owned by Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust.
These are the very properties that VICI Properties is preparing to buy for $4.27 billion.
VICI Properties now owns 10 hotel-casinos on the Strip
Even before the announcement that interests us through today’s news, VICI Properties owned the real estate assets of some of the most prestigious hotel-casinos on the Strip. Among them are Caesars Palace and the Venetian Las Vegas. Now the trust owns no less than 10 establishments on this famous thoroughfare.
This represents a total of more than 11 hectares of gaming rooms, in the 40,775 hotel rooms or suites and nearly 55 hectares of spaces dedicated to meetings and conventions.
For its part, private equity giant Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust still remains a major player in real estate on the Strip. It owns the Bellagio’s real estate assets there and is part of the consortium that paid $4 billion for the Cosmopolitan’s real estate earlier this year.
If he agreed to sell his shares in the Mandalay Bay and MGM Grand hotel-casinos, it was probably because the transaction allowed him to make a profit.
The Mandalay Bay and MGM Grand still operated by MGM Resorts International
Currently, the Mandalay Bay and the MGM Grand are operated by the MGM Resorts International group. Opened on March 2, 1999, the former has 3,309 guest rooms or suites and a game room that covers an area of over 12,500 square meters.
Opened on December 18, 1993, the second one has 6,852 rooms or suites and a gaming area covering nearly 16,000 square meters.
Each of them also hosts a theater, bars and restaurants, and a wedding chapel, among others.
