MGM Mirage, Deutsche Bank Talks on CityCenter Said to Collapse

I'll never forget hearing about this when it was announced, to the sound popping champagne corks, and thinking 'these guys are the biggest morons to have ever walked the earth.'

I drove by that site about a year ago while attending the ICSC convention, and seeing already at that time how much Vegas had slowed down.

It's so much worse just a year later, it's hard to fathom what will turn that place around.

MGM Mirage, Deutsche Bank Talks on CityCenter Said to Collapse
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By Jonathan Keehner and Beth Jinks

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- MGM Mirage and Dubai World failed to reach agreement with Deutsche Bank AG and talks on a $1.2 billion loan to complete the Las Vegas CityCenter project collapsed, according to five people with knowledge of the matter.



Deutsche Bank was seeking equity and debt stakes in the $11.2 billion development on the Las Vegas Strip in return for the loan, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. MGM Mirage and Dubai World, which would have merged CityCenter with a neighboring property owned by the bank, are now holding talks with other parties, one of the people said.

MGM Mirage, controlled by 91-year-old investor Kirk Kerkorian, fell to its lowest in at least 19 years in U.S. trading yesterday after saying it may breach terms of its senior credit facility this year. Reaching a deal with Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank would have helped MGM Mirage and its Dubai partner finish the project without spending more of their own cash.

“If the deal is off, MGM Mirage will have to consider other options such as asset sales,” Michael Paladino, an analyst at Fitch Ratings, said in an interview. “Investor sentiment around Las Vegas is at an all-time low so it will be difficult to raise capital in public markets. No asset sales would be off the table for MGM and it’s definitely a buyer’s market.”

Deutsche Bank had considered combining its Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino tower, also under construction on the Strip, with the 67-acre CityCenter development between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo casinos. The project is scheduled to open late this year.

‘Ongoing Talks’

Agreeing to the transaction with Las Vegas-based MGM Mirage may have enabled Deutsche Bank to avoid booking a writedown on Cosmopolitan, which it foreclosed on last year after developer Ian Bruce Eichner defaulted on a $760 million loan. The bank holds about $1.5 billion of Cosmopolitan’s debt, two people with knowledge of the situation said on Feb. 23.

“We are having ongoing talks with our financial partners about our several options,” said MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman. A Deutsche Bank spokesman declined to comment.

Moody’s rates MGM Mirage long-term debt B3, six grades below investment grade.

MGM Mirage and its Dubai government-owned partner have struggled to raise the cash needed to finish CityCenter amid near-frozen credit markets and gambling declines. CityCenter includes a casino, hotels, condos and a 500,000-square-foot retail and entertainment district set to open in December.

Gambling revenue in Las Vegas, the biggest betting center in the U.S., fell the most on record last year, causing declining sales at MGM Mirage, the owner of 10 casino resorts in the city and the biggest employer in the state of Nevada.

MGM Mirage has slumped 84 percent this year and closed yesterday at $2.21 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the lowest since at least December 1989.

Chief Executive Officer James Murren agreed in December to sell the company’s Treasure Island casino, postponed the opening of one hotel and canceled a condominium development at CityCenter to save cash.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Keehner in New York jkeehner@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 5, 2009 00:00 EST

 

Lets see........"The Senator Reid Strip Builders Stimulus Plan" coming to a neighborhood near you!!!