That Joel Stein portrait of les freres Fertitta, of Station Casinos fame, has resurfaced on the CNN Money Web site. Thankfully, the spectacular Red Rock Resort is no longer referred to as "Red Rocks [sic]."
Unfortunately, the Fertitta Bros. exceedingly disingenuous account of why Station left Missouri remains intact. And Stein's portrayal of the Fertittas may not be as flattering as I originally thought: One colleague read it and came away with the impression they were "a couple of meatheads." As for their revival of the UFC, I agree with whoever called the sport [sic] "human cockfighting" and wish the Fertittas had left it in whatever dumpster they found it.
I hear that two more magazines have Frank-and-Lorenzo profiles in the works, so a full-scale charm offensive appears to be on the move. Why? Your guess is as good as mine … and probably better.
Durango update: On Nov. 8, a Durango Station zoning-change request popped up with Clark County planners. Station is seeking re-zone 17 acres of its Rhodes Ranch-area land from residential to resort-enabled, "to establish continuity throughout the development." The 17 acres in question are at least tentatively scheduled to become a "retail shopping village."
There's nothing untoward about this, Station assures us. The zoning change "is to make all the parcels of land consistent with its use as a gaming-entitled parcel by bundling the smaller parcels together as one site instead of a few different parcels … We aren't changing any of our design plans as a result of this rezoning request and this will not be an expansion gaming overlay district."
The only potential flies in the ointment are that some of the 17 acres fall outside the current scope of the Rhodes Ranch master-planned community and thus would be subject to the constraints of SB 208. The land Station owns within the present boundaries of Rhodes Ranch was grandfathered in when Nevada solons passed SB 208. For further details of the project, see here. The Durango Station site can be seen here.
It's a go in Reno: Station just got the thumbs-up from Reno's city fathers for its planned suburban resort. (A second project, opposite the Reno-Sparks Convention Center, remains in abeyance for the time being.) This will not be a great thrill for the Culinary Union, which weighs in on Station and other matters (but mostly Station), in its new blog, Drop, Handle & Hold. There's no love lost between the Culinary and Station, and hasn't been for quite some time. If you employ that filter when reading the Culinary blog, you'll still come away with some interesting information. For instance, this rendering of what Station's first Northern Nevada property would look like:
The Culinary also managed to lay its hands on property layouts for Durango and Aliante Stations. Here is Aliante's:
If you look closely, you will see that the Phase I hotel (shown in the rendering that accompanied the earlier Stiffs & Georges entry) is but a very small piece of a sprawling. Trying to visualize Aliante Station based on that rendering, I feel like the three blind men trying to describe an elephant. And if you'd like to see how Durango Station will fit into the parcel shown in that Clark County aerial survey. Here it is:
Anyway, thanks to the Culinary for giving us this look-see into what Station's next slew of neighborhood casinos will look like (i.e., remarkably similar to one another). As for the union's intriguing theory as to how Station could build a hotel-free "Castaways Station" on Fremont Street, I ran it by Station and a company representative didn't take issue with it. What Station has taken issue with is the "Castaways Station" moniker, but that's what it says on the Las Vegas City Council agenda item, so I guess they can blame some planning-commission wag for that one.
Scuttlebut strongly has it that the description of Castaways Station that was printed in the Business Press is at odds with what will eventually rise on the former site of what might be called "Shustek's Folly." If that's the case, why Station is showing renderings and otherwise talking the project up to City Councilman Gary Reese is anyone's guess. But it wouldn't be the first time in my experience of covering Station that the company's left hand has seemed to be in the dark as to what its right hand was doing. Station, communicate with thyself!
