Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Bally exec eyes Frontier

Bally Entertainment Corp. Chairman Arthur Goldberg said today he wants to buy the strike-ridden Frontier hotel-casino.

"It's a good property with a good location, and I think it could be brought back to what it was," Goldberg said. "We have a great presence here now, and I think we could use a property a little bit further down the Strip to balance what we have at the center of the Strip."

Goldberg -- leading the transition team overseeing his company's $3 billion merger with Hilton Hotels Corp., expected to be finalized in November -- has been trying to arrange a meeting with the Elardi family, the Frontier's owners, to make his pitch.

Sources said Goldberg has the financial wherewithal to buy the Frontier on his own if the acquisition doesn't fit into Hilton's plans.

With Bally's hotel-casino, the planned Paris mega-resort next door, the Las Vegas Hilton and the Flamingo Hilton, the Hilton-Bally's conglomerate has 12,000 hotel rooms in Las Vegas, the most of any casino company.

Goldberg said he wants to build a themed 3,000-room mega-resort on the Frontier property, which has the Fashion Show Mall on the south and the Stardust hotel-casino on the north. His plans could include leveling all or parts of the current Frontier structure.

Frontier General Manager Tom Elardi could not be reached for comment today. But earlier in the week, before Goldberg entered the picture, Elardi said the hotel had not received any credible purchase offers.

Goldberg's interest in the Frontier comes amid talks between Elardi and international Culinary Union President Ed Hanley aimed at settling a nearly 5-year-old strike at the resort.

As those talks were to resume today, Culinary leaders hailed Goldberg's plans.

"It's certainly an interesting development," said John Wilhelm, the international's secretary-treasurer. "Our union has had a very constructive relationship with Bally Entertainment under Arthur Goldberg's leadership, just as we have with all of the other major operators.

"A sale to a reputable operator of that kind certainly provides one way of finding an honorable resolution to all of this."

Goldberg said he would welcome the union at the Frontier.

"We're union in all our facilities," he said. "I think we could re-establish the union presence at the hotel, which is necessary for a smooth functioning business."

Any agreement is contingent on Elardi settling his differences with the union over his massive monetary liabilities.

Hanley contends the Frontier won't be "saleable" until those liabilities, estimated by some at $60 million, are resolved.

A federal appeals court has ruled the Frontier owes striking workers millions in back pension and other work-related benefits cut off during the walkout.

Earlier this week, Hanley gave Elardi a 10-page memo outlining how the union could help Elardi reduce his liabilities if the two sides came together.

The memo begins by saying: "The union is prepared to enter into a contract and strike settlement agreement with a buyer of the Frontier that includes a commitment by the union to take measures outlined below to bring the least expensive possible resolution of the National Labor Relations Board cases against the Frontier."

Meanwhile, rumors persisted today that other casino operators also are eyeing the Frontier.

New York real estate mogul Donald Trump, who owns several Atlantic City casinos, now is sending out mixed signals.

A Trump spokeswoman in New York Wednesday denied a rumor Hanley floated that the gaming mogul was looking at the Frontier.

But on Thursday, David Atwell, a Las Vegas real estate man helping Trump find a property on the Strip, called the SUN to say a Frontier purchase was a possibility.

"He's very interested in the Strip, and I wouldn't rule out the Frontier," Atwell said. "But at this time, there's been no attempt made on the Frontier.

Atwell said he has been helping Trump make a "large purchase" elsewhere on the Strip that so far "has not come to fruition."

Another hot sale rumor focuses on Trump's archrival, Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn, who owns a parking lot and human resources office bordering the Frontier.

Mirage Resorts spokesman Alan Feldman described talk of Wynn's interest in the Frontier as an "old rumor."

"There's nothing we're pursuing right now," Feldman said.

But gaming sources said Wynn is in a strong position to buy the troubled resort if he chooses to make an offer.

He's also said to be considering a bid to purchase the Fashion Show Mall, which is between the Frontier and Wynn's Treasure Island mega-resort.

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