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Another potential buyer emerges for Fontainebleau

Las Vegas company would target it to military personnel, veterans

Updated Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009 | 4:22 p.m.

Fontainebleau Resort

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A little-known Las Vegas company has expressed interest in acquiring the bankrupt Fontainebleau casino-resort project.

The Miami Herald reported today that Craig Road Development Corp. sent a letter to Fontainebleau's bankruptcy judge in Miami expressing interest in buying the unfinished resort on Las Vegas Boulevard for $350 million.

Other than putting up Web sites, it's unclear if Craig Road Development has any business operations.

Nevada Secretary of State records show its corporate status is in default.

Its officers, state records show, are president and treasurer Eugene Hill; directors La Tina and Prentice Barbee of Chicago; and secretary Patrick Nary of Cheyenne, Wyo.

Asked Saturday if the company had any business operations or revenue, Hill said: "We do not care to discuss our financial or business operations at this time.''

"We do hope to re-establish our business status with the state in short order," he added.

Hill is also an officer with Eugene Hill USA Inc. -- the state lists the status of that company as revoked.

The Herald reported that in the Nov. 30 letter, Hill said his company and "certain investors'' are in discussions with the U.S. Army about acquiring a resort for military personnel and veterans.

On one of his Web sites, Hill says he spent 17 years as an Army public affairs supervisor and since June 2007 has been chief executive of Craig Road Development, the "parent company of Heroes Property Group, which is the operator of Heroes Resort Casinos, Hotels and Lodges.''

Judge A. Jay Cristol told Hill in a letter Friday that the auction of the Fontainebleau is set for next month and advised him to coordinate his efforts with the debtor, the Herald reported.

If Hill participates in the auction, he'll be competing with stalking horse bidder Carl Icahn, who has offered $156.2 million in cash and financing to take over the project. Court records show experts believe it will take more than $1 billion and as much as $2 billion to complete the resort.

On his eugenehillusa.com Web site, Hill says Craig Road Development has been seeking investors for its proposed $6 billion "Heroes Property Group Las Vegas joint venture in the world-famous Las Vegas resort corridor.''

The project is envisioned as having three resorts with 7,500 rooms, 44 restaurants, 6,000 gaming machines, spas, fitness centers and performance venues.

But the recession has dried up capital markets, visitation to Las Vegas has been hurt by the recession and the Echelon and Fontainebleau projects are mothballed,

So it's unlikely even an established gaming company would pursue development of such a project anytime soon.

But, Hill said Saturday, there is plenty of interest in development of a resort for military personnel and veterans. He described his company as a group of veterans and entrepreneurs.

In a statement, he said:

"The Department of Defense conducts a triennial review of its morale, welfare and recreation facilities by surveying service people, their families, government civilians and retirees. They’ve discovered that through their recreation options to include its recreation centers it can improve morale by showing all of these groups that DOD cares about them and their families. In another iteration of this survey, it was revealed the surveyed audiences found Las Vegas to be the third-most sought after location for a recreation center.

"A 3,800-room facility such as the Fontainebleau or any of the 4- or 5-star mega resorts match the caliber of facility exposed in the survey. As such an unfinished, pre-bankruptcy opportunity to bid on the Fontainebleau offers an exceptional opportunity for delivering a new facility to this very special audience.

"We are in discussion with several entities with a strong history of patriotic contributions to our men and women in uniform but it would not be prudent to name them or to use this as a medium to advertise our fundraising efforts or their discrete actions. Leave it said that we have not fully exhausted our effort to bring more qualified investors to this effort.

"More importantly, we have identified a number of financial options available to this partnership who have a history or interest in collaborating with a government entity for a variety of reasons. ''

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