Company buys Coast’s North Las Vegas land

Friday, Jan. 26, 2001 | 11:31 a.m.

Station Casinos Inc. has blocked potential competition to its North Las Vegas casino business, announcing it has acquired a land parcel in North Las Vegas owned by competitor Coast Resorts Inc.

Station said it paid $9 million for the land parcel earlier this month. The 29-acre gaming-entitled land parcel is located at the intersection of Smoke Ranch and Rancho roads, just north of Station's Texas Station and Fiesta.

However, it appears unlikely the purchase will result in a third Station property on Rancho -- in a statement, Station said it expects to sell the parcel as a non-gaming site.

Coast had been mulling the construction of Kactus Kate's Casino at the site. Plans filed with the North Las Vegas Planning Commission indicated Coast was considering a property with 450 hotel rooms and a 102,000-square-foot casino.

"As we saw the competitive nature of that area intensify, in terms of the size of competing facilities, we just felt we would have to build something much bigger than we had intended to compete with Texas Station and Santa Fe Station," said Coast President Harlan Braaten. "It was just going to be a very expensive project, and we didn't feel the returns would be that good."

Coast's timeframe for developing the site was limited, as the land's gaming entitlements expire next year if a casino hasn't opened on the site.

Privately held Coast is considered Station's most powerful competitor in the Las Vegas locals market, with four properties to Station's six. And in its last quarterly report, Station said strong competition from Coast's Suncoast, opened near Summerlin in September, had been taking business away from Texas Station.