Boyd buys controversial neighborhood casino project

David Strow

Friday, Feb. 11, 2000 | 11:04 a.m.

Boyd Gaming Corp. today announced plans to buy and develop the controversial 300-room hotel-casino project at Triple Five's planned retail development in Spring Valley.

With the announcement, the Las Vegas company came out firing at critics of the project, saying the new development will be far more friendly to the community than many local casinos now in operation.

"The thing that specifically attracted us to this particular transaction is the opportunity ... to create the next generation of local casino development," said Don Snyder, president of Boyd Gaming. "This is not a neighborhood casino, despite what the opposition will say.

"This project is much more sensitive ... to some of the issues raised about the development of local casinos. It's responsive to community concerns."

Critics, however, have sued Clark County and Triple Five and are appealing to a state neighborhood gaming committee in hopes of blocking the project.

Under the agreement reached between Boyd and Triple Five, Boyd would purchase a 22-acre site at the center of the 110-acre Triple Five development near Flamingo Road and the Beltway. Boyd was unprepared to release cost estimates, timeframes, or the eventual theme of the casino.

Unlike the newer local casinos developed in recent years, the entertainment offerings of the Triple Five development will be offered outside of the casino, rather than all under one roof. The project's ultimate plans include such amenities as movie theaters, restaurants, athletic clubs, a miniature golf course and a water park, Triple Five said in a statement.

"This 110 acres that Triple Five is developing is a $1 billion project ... our casino will likely be only a fifth of that," Snyder. "We're talking about a major development, of which the casino is integrated into it. This is an open environment, where people can get from one place to another without walking through the casino."

The Clark County Commission voted 3-1 in January to approve a zoning change that would allow a casino to be developed at the Triple Five site, despite vocal opposition from neighborhood residents. Helping the opposition was Station Casinos Inc.

Station says it opposes further expansion to protect the valley's quality of life, rather than because it wants to quash competition to its four large local casinos.

Though Snyder did not mention Station by name, he took an indirect shot at the company, hinting that Boyd's project would not have as dramatic an impact as some of the huge local casinos in Las Vegas, which enclose entertainment offerings under the same roof as the casino.

"This is not the type of development where you'll have to walk through the casino to see your favorite movie," Snyder said. "This is much different than taking 80 acres to do a local casino.

"The controversy raised by this project is driven from a competitive point of view, more than anything else. If I were the competition, I would be worried about this project."

Boyd has been stymied in its efforts to develop local casinos before. Last May, a bill was introduced in the Nevada legislature that would allow Boyd to build two casinos in neighborhoods closed to gaming by the passage of Senate Bill 208 -- legislation designed to stop the spread of casinos in neighborhoods.

Station and other local operators opposed that move as well. The bill died in the state Senate.

But Snyder insisted the Triple Five project isn't an attempt to circumvent SB208. The casino will be 1,800 feet from the nearest home, he said -- more than three times the 500 feet permitted by the law.

"We wouldn't be involved with this project if we weren't absolutely certain that we had the right to proceed, both within the letter and the spirit of the law," Snyder said.