The casino operator eliminated more than 1,000 jobs, mostly in Las Vegas, last year as part of its “MGM 2020” cost-cutting plan sold the Bellagio’s real estate to Blackstone for around $4.2 billion in cash and sold Circus Circus and 37 acres of adjacent land for $825 million to Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin late last year. The sell-off is the latest move by MGM to bolster its balance sheet.
MGM Resorts will lease back MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay and continue to operate the hotel-casinos, as it does with the Bellagio. Blackstone, which has been on a real estate buying binge in Southern Nevada for years, will own 49.9 percent of the venture. MGM’s real estate investment trust, MGM Growth Properties, will own 50.1 percent of the joint venture and said the deal values the resorts at $4.6 billion. The deal is expected to close this quarter. New York financial giant The Blackstone Group, the Bellagio’s new landlord, announced Tuesday it agreed to form a joint venture to acquire the additional MGM Resorts International properties on the Strip. (Erik Verduzco / Las Vegas Review-Journal) Grand and Mandalay Bay are getting a new landlord in a $4.6 billion deal, just a few months after the Bellagio sold for billions. MGM Grand casino-hotel in Las Vegas, Tuesday, Jan.
