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[toc]Billionaire Richard Branson is in the market for a hotel in Las Vegas.
Branson founded the Virgin Group. According to Vegas Inc, Virgin Hotels, part of the Virgin Group, could soon have a hotel property of its own in Las Vegas.
But the company isn’t going it alone.
Amanda Caskey, a senior director with a public relations and marketing agency representing Virgin Hotels, to Vegas Inc., had this to say:
“Virgin Hotels, in partnership with Bosworth Hospitality Partners, LLC, and Juniper Capital Partner, LLC, is in the due diligence phase on an asset in the Las Vegas market.”
Once the word got out that Virgin was looking, the company was approached for additional opportunities in the market. Even so, the company remains hush-hush about what those could be.
Virgin uses partnerships to expand Vegas opportunities
Founder of Bosworth Hospitality Partners, Richard Bosworth, began working with Virgin in February. However, Bosworth has a longstanding relationship with Juniper.
“We are highly energized right now in pursuit of procuring a Las Vegas casino hotel resort,” Bosworth said to Vegas Inc.
Anthony F. Lucas, a professor in University of Las Vegas’ hotel administration schools, told Vegas Inc. that Virgin could follow Wynn in their service of customers, being “savvy enough to think like a guest” and fix customer pain points.
The director of a gaming group CBRE, a commercial real estate company, said Virgin’s reputation outside of Vegas as a “sexy aspirational lifestyle brand” could make it really take off on the Strip.
Virgin Group history in the hotel market
Virgin continues to grow its gambling assets.
Already, Virgin operates an online casino in New Jersey under Tropicana’s online casino license.
In a press release, the company just announced its first property in Washington, D.C., which will open in fall 2019. The brand first opened a hotel in Chicago. It plans toadd properties in:
- San Francisco
- Dallas
- Palm Springs
- Silicon Valley
- New York
- New Orleans
- Nashville
Additionally, Virgin continues to look into these other major areas:
- Boston
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- Austin
- Seattle
- Toronto
- Montreal
- London
In other news, another recent establishment by Virgin: Virgin Voyages’ new cruise ship. The ship, currently under construction in Genoa, Italy, reported HuffPost.
Recent Vegas deals generating positive change
Nevada gaming revenue almost reached $1 billion in September. The Las Vegas strip was up 4.67%.
These positive changes at a time when others are moving real estate on the Strip. Golden Gaming just bought the American Casino & Entertainment Properties (and subsequently, the Stratosphere) for $850 million, and Steven Witkoff bought Carl Icahn’s Fontainebleau for $600 million.
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