M Resort founder Anthony Marnell III plans to purchase nine acres of land virtually across the street to build a competing casino.
Henderson City Council has approved a resolution to sell the parcel on St. Rose Parkway just east of Las Vegas Boulevard to Marnell for at least $4.3 million.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal cited documents from the municipality on Las Vegas’ southern border in reporting last week that Marnell estimates he will invest around $250 million in the project.
Marnell, chairman and chief executive of Marnell Companies, told the Review-Journal he doesn’t expect to break ground for at least a year, depending on how long the coronavirus pandemic lasts and his assessment of the local market’s ability to support competing casinos.
“There’s no set timeline for when this would start,” he said.
Marnell opened the $750 million, 390-room M in 2009 in the teeth of the global financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed. Its subsequent struggles led to its sale in 2011 to Penn National Gaming for the price of its debt at the time, around $230.5 million.
Marnell, who initially stayed on as president, left in 2015.
