Latino theme eyed as possibility for Castaways

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004 | 10:42 a.m.

The Castaways would be transformed into Las Vegas' first hotel-casino marketed directly to Hispanics if a trio of small casino operators exercise an option to buy the 49-year-old property.

Randy Miller, Rich Iannone and Rich Gonzales, the owners of the Bighorn casino in North Las Vegas and the Longhorn casino on Boulder Highway, want to dramatically change the property in a way to appeal to hundreds of thousands of Clark County Hispanics, many of whom live near the Castaways, as well as to Hispanic tourists from California, Arizona and Mexico.

"Nobody's ever gone in 100 percent to give Hispanics a place completely their own," said Miller, spokesperson for the ownership group, which is now conducting due diligence after negotiating an 30-day exclusive right to buy the property. "It's just common sense that if you want to succeed at that location, you have to cater to Hispanics."

The trio's Bighorn casino on East Lake Mead boulevard already has a largely Hispanic customer base, and Miller said the owners believe their experience in the North Las Vegas market will help them on Fremont Street.

"People are looking for someplace that welcomes them," he said. "If our offer goes through, we'd want to (target) the 450,000 Hispanics in Clark County, but also target people in Southern California and Arizona who really haven't been targeted before."

Miller said the group's option to buy the property expires March 15, and provides for a payment that would at least make Castaways' lenders Vestin Mortgage and its California co-lender Owens Financial whole. The mortgage note holders are owed more than $22 million, meaning the Miller, Iannone and Gonzales group's option would cost that much or more.

Industry experts have questioned the viability of the Castaways site, but Miller said he thinks the neighborhood's residents would support a property that knows how to market to Hispanics.

Miller declined to say if he planned to rename the Castaways, but said he envisioned a property with a Spanish-speaking work force, signs in Spanish, and Mexican music and televised sports.

"We believe if you're going to do it you have to go all the way," Miller said.

He bristled at the suggestion that he and his partners lack the big-property experience a Castaways takeover needs, noting that the partners also own and operate two Louisiana truck stops with video poker and operate gaming concessions at another two truck stops. Miller was a president of slot route operator United Coin in the '80s, and Iannone was a Gaming Control Board official.

"If anything the Castaways isn't big enough -- it needs another hotel tower to market it the way we'd want to," Miller said.

He said the prospective owners have yet to consider whether to honor the Castaways' union contracts.

"Our due diligence so far has been based on the viability of the project, of our concept," Miller said. "We haven't looked at the Castaways' contracts."

Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor said earlier this week that he wasn't sure if the local's contract with prior owner VSS would still apply to new owners.