History
The first Station Casinos property, Palace Station, is located in Las Vegas and originally opened as The Casino on July 1, 1976, [6] [7] which is considered the company's founding date. [8] [9] The Casino was renamed the Bingo Palace in 1977. [6] Frank Fertitta Jr., the founder of Station Casinos, bought a 10-percent stake in the casino later that year and became its vice president and director. [10] [11] [12] He bought out his partners in 1979, [13] then expanded the casino and renamed it Palace Station in 1984. [14]
Nearly a decade later, Fertitta filed to make the Palace Station a public company known as Station Casinos. [15] [16] The stock began trading on May 25, 1993. [17] [18] Fertitta held the position of chairman, but retired from the company that year. Control was taken over by family members, including his son Frank Fertitta III, who took the position of chairman, president, and chief executive officer. [19] [20]
The initial public offering helped finance the company's second Las Vegas property, Boulder Station, [21] which opened in 1994. It is located along Boulder Highway in the eastern Las Vegas Valley. [22] [23] In Missouri, the company also opened the St. Charles riverboat casino in 1994. [24] [25] [26] Meanwhile, Fertitta had begun construction on his own hotel-casino project, the Texas, located in North Las Vegas. Station shareholders objected to Fertitta branching out into the gaming industry on his own, prompting the company to purchase the Texas in 1995, shortly before its opening. [27] [28]
In Henderson, Nevada, Station opened the Sunset Station in 1997, [29] followed by Green Valley Ranch in 2001, [30] the latter in partnership with American Nevada Corporation. [31] Station also purchased several existing properties in the Las Vegas Valley, including the Santa Fe in 2000, [32] and the Fiesta and Reserve in 2001. [33] [34]
Wildfire Gaming is a division of Station that operates small casinos around the Las Vegas Valley. [35] [36] Wildfire-branded casinos are smaller than Station's other properties and lack hotel rooms. [37] The original property, known simply as Wildfire Casino, opened in 2001. [38] [39] [40] Station purchased the 20,000 sq ft (1,900 m2) casino in 2003, [41] and opened additional Wildfire casinos starting in 2008. [42] [43] A 21,000 sq ft (2,000 m2) Wildfire was opened in downtown Las Vegas in 2023. [44] [45] It was built on five acres, occupying a portion of the former Castaways Hotel and Casino site, which Station had purchased in 2004. [46] [47] Compared to previous Wildfire casinos, the new location features a more upscale design which will be integrated into existing and future locations. [48] [49]
In 2005, there were plans to develop two casinos in Reno: Station Casino Reno and Mount Rose Station. In 2020, the land was sold. [50] [51] [52]
Station opened its Red Rock Resort in 2006. It was built in the Las Vegas community of Summerlin at a cost of $925 million, making it Station's most expensive property. [23]
On December 4, 2006, Fertitta Colony Partners made a highly leveraged offer to purchase all existing shares at $82 per share and take the company private. The partnership consisted of Fertitta III and his brother Lorenzo, along with Colony Capital LLC. [53] The Fertitta brothers, their sister Delise Sartini, and her husband Blake L. Sartini, with a combined investment of $870.1 million, purchased a 25% stake in Fertitta Colony Partners. Colony Capital contributed $2.6 billion for a 75% share. [54] The buyout was completed on November 7, 2007. [55]
On July 28, 2009, Station Casinos filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Station Casinos' filing listed $5.7 billion in assets against $6.5 billion in debt. The filing said the company had 510 holders of unsecured and subordinate debt totaling $4.4 billion. [56]
Station Casinos exited bankruptcy on June 17, 2011, with $4 billion less in debt and with creditors putting the company's 18 casinos back in the hands of the Fertitta family and their partners. The Fertitta brothers agreed to put nearly $200 million in the reassembled company and now own 45 percent of its shares. The other new equity owners include the company's main lenders, Deutsche Bank AG, which holds 25 percent; JPMorgan Chase with a 15 percent stake; and former bondholders with an additional 15 percent, according to lawyers on the deal. [57]
Station Casinos announced on October 13, 2015, that it would return to the stock market with an initial public offering. [58] On April 26, 2016, Red Rock Resorts, Inc., a new holding company owning a portion of Station Casinos, went public on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. [59]
In 2016, Station Casinos purchased the Palms Casino Resort for $313 million. [60] [61] The company then spent more than $600 million on renovations, which failed to restore the resort to its former prominence. [62] [63] The Palms was sold to the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in 2021, for $650 million. [64] [65] That year, the company announced that it would proceed with Durango, a long-planned resort in the southwest Las Vegas Valley. [66] [67] It opened at the end of 2023. [68]
Several casino properties in the Las Vegas Valley – Texas Station, Fiesta Rancho, and Fiesta Henderson – were closed in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and never reopened. Station announced in 2022 that it would demolish the properties and sell the land to finance future projects. [69] [70] The demolition was viewed by analysts as a defensive move to prevent future competition from gaming rivals. [71] [72] Station also announced in 2022 that it would close and demolish its Wild Wild West Gambling Hall & Hotel, located in the Las Vegas Valley as well. The site will be redeveloped in connection with adjoining acreage. [73] [74] [75]
Dispute with the Culinary Workers Union
Station Casinos has been involved in a long-time feud with the Culinary Workers Union, which represents the majority of resort workers in Las Vegas. The feud began in 2000, when Station purchased the Santa Fe. Workers there had already voted seven years earlier for representation, although a contract was never finalized under the former ownership. When Station took over, it required that all of the property's employees re-apply for their jobs, to the disagreement of the Culinary Workers Union. The union has since targeted other Station properties over the years in an effort to unionize them. [32]
In 2019, the Culinary Workers Union filed 16 unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Station Casinos, with the union alleging that workers received discriminatory work assignments and were threatened with being fired for supporting unionization. [76] In June 2024, the NLRB ruled against Station Casinos, finding that the company had committed "extensive coercive and unlawful misconduct" as part of a "carefully crafted corporate strategy intentionally designed at every step to interfere with employees’ free choice" to unionize or not. [76] [77] As part of its ruling, the NLRB also issued a remedial bargaining order, also known as a Cemex bargaining order, which requires an employer that is found to have illegally interfered with a union election to immediately recognize and bargain with the union, rather than ordering a new election. [76] [77] [78]
