Company executives on Thursday gave an explanation about how it views the 34 acres it acquired in 2017 for an estimated $336 million.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. isn’t in any rush to develop the property it owns across the Las Vegas Boulevard from its existing Wynn and Encore Las Vegas resorts.
Company executives on Thursday re-emphasized its focus on Wynn Al Marjan Island, the resort it is building in the United Arab Emirates, but gave an explanation about how it views the 34 acres it acquired in 2017 for an estimated $336 million.
“We obviously have a very substantial land bank here in Las Vegas,” Wynn CEO Craig Billings said in response to an inquiry in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday.
“So we have years and years and years of growth ahead of us. I often get asked, ‘Why aren’t you moving on the land in Las Vegas right now?’ And the reality is that from a capital perspective, from a bandwidth perspective within our amazing design and development team, there are only so many things, frankly, that one can do at once.”
Billings explained that the top focus is on Wynn Al Marjan Island for now. The company also has a bid in place to develop a casino project in downstate New York and has been among many companies investigating the prospect of building in Thailand.
“If Thailand does move ahead, for example, you know, you want to make sure that you’re in a position to participate,” Billings said. “We have a lot of opportunities. But right now, we’re very focused on Wynn Marjan. It’s a brand new market. You’ve seen the research. It’s a $3 (billion) to $5 billion market and it’s a tremendous opportunity for us. So that’s why we’re very focused on the cost.”
Exciting new market
Billings called Wynn Marjan Island “the most exciting new market for our industry in decades” and said construction has reached the 35th floor on a 1,000-foot tower and that more than 4.6 million square feet of concrete and steel are in place.
Billings referenced the recent openings of Fontainebleau Las Vegas and Durango in assessing when to press forward on the vacant land.
“The market is just now absorbing capacity from two openings over the course of really the past four or five years. And we have to make sure that we are in a position to do something that addresses an adjacent customer base. We obviously don’t want to cannibalize ourselves and we don’t want to create, you know, Wynn Las Vegas 2.0,” he said.
“So we need to make sure that we have our market positioning right and we have a very clear view of what that market position is. We’ve done early studies and early doodles, if you will, on what we think that land could hold. And, you know, at this point I would say stay tuned. Again, we would appreciate it if everyone was as focused on Wynn Al Marjan as we are because that is quite the opportunity and we’ll see how we proceed from there.”
Billings and Wynn Resorts Chief Operating Officer Brian Gullbrants said the opening of the private membership Zero Bond club is on the horizon this year in Las Vegas and the company also is expected to invest in the late summer on a renovation of hotel rooms in the Encore tower. Gullbrants said the renovation is expected to be conducted floor by floor with closures on the floor above and the floor below the renovation site to minimize disruptions to guests.
Wynn Resorts reported net income of $322.4 million, $2.29 a share, on revenue of $1.84 billion, for the quarter that ended Dec. 31, and flat against the previous year, attributed in part to Formula One attendance and room rates being down from 2023.
Wynn shares, traded on the Nasdaq exchange, were up $2.10 a share, 2.7 percent, t0 $80.47 a share on volume more than three times the daily average.
