The Nevada Gaming Commission, acting on a recommendation by the state Gaming Control Board, has declared the new owners of the off-Strip Rio Las Vegas to be suitable for licensing.
Eric Birnbaum and Thomas Ellis purchased the Rio from Caesars Entertainment at the end of 2019 for $516.3 million through Dreamscape, a New York-based property development firm they founded that focuses on the acquisition and development of assets in the hospitality, residential, retail, gaming and entertainment sectors. Its projects include a 700-room mixed-use complex In New York’s Times Square and a planned hotel In Miami’s South Beach. Birnbaum also owns the non-gaming Westin Las Vegas on East Flamingo Road behind Bally’s Las Vegas.
Dreamscape’s deal for the Rio calls for Caesars to pay the company $45 million a year to operate the 2,500-room casino hotel for two years. The agreement has since been extended another year as a result of the Covid crisis in order to give Birnbaum and Ellis more time to formulate their plans for the resort. In exchange, they will pay Caesars $7 million.
Birnbaum told the Gaming Commission the company will seek financing to remodel the property and plan to operate the gaming portion, for which they will eventually pursue a gaming license. They will contract out management of the hotel side, he said, under deals involving Hyatt Hotels and Texas-based Aimbridge Hospitality.
“If I were sitting here in March or April 2020, I would have had a pessimistic or dour outlook,” Birnbaum said. “But today, we’re revving up the engines a little quicker than we anticipated.”
He added, “We’re not a volume shop, a hedge fund or private equity. We don’t intend to own the property for two years and then sell it. We’re committed and passionate and we want to learn from best and do right by the city and everybody involved.”
