Lady Luck operator looking at timeshares

David Strow

Monday, Jan. 7, 2002 | 9:46 a.m.

The owner of the Lady Luck hotel-casino is considering adding timeshare units to the struggling downtown Las Vegas property in an effort at boosting its fortunes.

The timeshare proposal for the Lady Luck, owned by Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. of Biloxi, Miss., will be considered at a meeting of the Las Vegas Planning Commission Thursday. Plans on file with the city indicate the company is looking at converting the hotel's west tower -- located across Third Street from the main hotel-casino -- into timeshare units.

"Time-sharing has been shown to be a great economic benefit to the community ... by essentially guaranteeing visitor volumes over many years," wrote Greg Borgel, a planning consultant working with Isle of Capri, in a letter to the city's planning department. "Those persons purchasing a time-share interest will return annually, or allow others to use their time-share rights, assuring that the rooms will be utilized almost regardless of outside factors."

Greg Guida, vice president of development for Isle of Capri, said the company has not yet decided whether it will actually proceed with a timeshare project at the Lady Luck. The number of timeshares, cost or timeframe for the development are all undetermined, Guida said, though he said the 792-room property will still retain enough hotel rooms to qualify for a non-restricted gaming license.

Under state law, a casino must have at least 200 hotel rooms to receive a non-restricted license.

Guida described the conversion as "more a condo-type product rather than just hotel rooms, in the existing facilities."

"We're just looking for options to do with that property," Guida said. "That's really the only (potential project) we're taking a real hard look at at this point."

The Lady Luck, acquired by Isle of Capri in September 2000 for $14.5 million, is the Mississippi company's only Nevada property. Its performance has been the weakest of Isle of Capri's 12 casinos, which are primarily riverboat casinos scattered throughout the Midwest and South.

Over a six-month period ending Oct. 29, the Lady Luck posted negative cash flow of $1.87 million on revenues of $18.3 million. Revenues were down 23 percent over the comparable period in 2000, but the company did improve on the $2.38 million cash flow loss posted in the year-ago period.

Only one other Isle of Casino property, located in Tunica, Miss., posted negative cash flow in that period. Overall, the company had cash flow of $110.9 million during the six-month period, a 5 percent decline over the comparable period in 2000.

"Things have been pretty tough downtown for a lot of operators," Guida said. "We're new to the market, we're still kind of feeling our way around things. There's been some pretty innovative stuff done downtown."