Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005 | 9:41 a.m.
Landry's Restaurants Inc. has made its millions satisfying the hunger of diners at Joe's Crab Shack, Saltgrass Steakhouse and the Rainforest Cafe.
Turns out, Landry's also has a healthy appetite.
Even before the deal closed giving a Landry's subsidiary possession of Golden Nugget casino properties in downtown Las Vegas and Laughlin for $140 million in cash and the assumption of $155 million in debt, Chairman Tilman Fertitta was talking about acquiring more downtown property and expanding the Golden Nugget brand nationwide.
Fertitta, whose company was approved for licensing Tuesday by the Nevada Gaming Commission after the acquisition from Poster Financial Group Inc., wouldn't disclose what properties he has his eye on. But he did say any commercial gaming venue will be fair game for his next casino project and the company intends to capitalize on the Golden Nugget name.
"It's very special to us," Fertitta said of the brand. "We have some other major developments, but it's very important that our first venture into the gaming industry be very, very successful."
Fertitta also outlined a three-year strategy to modify the Las Vegas property, downtown's largest. He said within three weeks, the company would begin remodeling the property's porte cochere and redesigns of the lobby and VIP area, projects the company hopes to complete by mid-January.
By the end of 2006, the company plans to complete two signature fine-dining restaurants, a Vic and Anthony's steakhouse, and Grotto, a trattoria-style restaurant serving Italian food.
A new 1,200-seat showroom, a ballroom and modifications to the casino floor are due by the end of 2007.
Fertitta also said his company would modify the facade of the building to unify the exterior, since the Nugget's two towers have different looks.
When the transaction was recommended for approval by the state Gaming Control Board earlier this month, Fertitta, a cousin of Station Casinos executives Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, said eventually, the company would ask the city to abandon Carson Street to enable the company to build a new tower. Details of that expansion are in the preliminary stages, he said, and he offered no new details Tuesday.
The Gaming Commission approved the licensing of the executives with little controversy. At one point, Chairman Peter Bernhard and Commissioner Arthur Marshall questioned Fertitta about the company's lack of experience in the gaming industry.
Fertitta countered that most of the top executives of the Golden Nugget under Poster Financial Group principals Tim Poster and Tom Breitling were staying with the property in key roles. Commissioners praised Chief Operating Officer Andre Carrier, one of the top executives staying from the Poster-Breitling era, as one of the up-and-comers in the casino business.
Fertitta also said he expects his company would enjoy the success of cross-marketing to thousands of customers of the 28 different restaurant brands the company owns. He added that as the flagship gaming property of the new Landry's Gaming subsidiary, the Golden Nugget would get high-priority attention that may have been lacking when the property was one of many owned by MGM Mirage, which sold it to Poster Financial Group, or original owner Steve Wynn.
Another downtown operator also won licensing approval from the commission. Andrew Donner, a trustee for the Donner Investment Trust, won kudos from commissioners for his efforts to transform Third Street into a hip new restaurant and entertainment district.
Donner and business partner Keith Grossman acquired 23,000 square feet at the former Trolley Stop Casino and developed the Hogs and Heifers bar and the Triple George Grill.
Now, the company is making strides to upgrade the Lady Luck hotel-casino.
Donner, whose Henry Brent Co. is the majority owner of the Timbers Bar and Grill chain in Southern Nevada, and his partners hope to add 20,000 square feet to the casino floor and eventually build up to 1,000 hotel rooms at the site of two old towers on the property -- one two stories and another four stories high.
"What started as a landlord-tenant relationship has turned into a passion," Donner told commissioners. "There seems to be a brotherhood and a sisterhood of operators downtown who really want to compete with the big resort operators on the Strip."
In another matter, commissioners approved the licensure of six executives with the Aladdin Resort and Casino, which is in the midst of a slow transformation to a resort with the Planet Hollywood brand.
Among the executives approved were Michael Belletire, who was questioned about his role in two incidents investigated by authorities in Illinois.
Belletire was associated with a high-tech collection agency that was investigated by the Illinois State Police and the FBI and was an unindicted co-conspirator in a case involving an insurance broker who defrauded his own company.
In both cases, Belletire, who is representing the Aladdin note holders on the board of managers, said he cooperated with authorities. Regulators said after a staff investigation they were satisfied that Belletire did not have a bigger role in either case.
The commission and the Gaming Control Board, which had a short special meeting prior to the commission session, also approved Progressive Gaming International Corp.'s acquisition of Virtgame Corp.
The Control Board did not act on the request at its meeting earlier this month because Progressive Gaming shareholders had yet to approve the transaction.
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