MGM, Dubai fall behind on $3.5 billion CityCenter plan

(via Bloomberg) · July 29, 2008 · 7:30 AM

Bloomberg is reporting that MGM Mirage and Dubai World are late in raising as much as $3.5 billion for the $11.2 billion CityCenter project because banks saddled with debt to casinos and hotels are wary of making new loans.

Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group, the Zurich-based bank that advised Dubai World last year when it invested $5.1 billion in MGM, are among the holdouts, bankers with knowledge of the matter said. Funding was supposed to be completed by the end of June, MGM Chief Financial Officer Daniel D'Arrigo told analysts in May.

The Las Vegas casino industry has been struggling with revenue falling 16 percent in May, the fifth straight monthly decline, amid near-record gasoline prices and rising unemployment in the U.S., according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Discussion: 1 comment so far...

By harske

7/30/08 at 4:30 p.m.

Suggest removal

It's going to take a banker with some pretty solid nerve to get this financing in place. I hate to say it, but be prepared for that monstrosity to steadily fall behind construction schedule, if not grind to a halt.

I can't wait to hear what the "it's just a little bump in the economy" champions have to say about this. At what point can we all agree that this was too big a project to be done this way? Seems to me a much more phased construction process would have been better. But what do I know? I can't remember the last time any of these developers consulted me...