Colorado headquartered Century Casinos has taken its global property portfolio to 18, encapsulating 7,185 gaming machines and 285 table games, after partnering with Vici Properties to secure three purchases from Eldorado Resorts.
Securing the operations of Missouri’s Isle Casino Cape Girardeau and Lady Luck Caruthersville as well as West Virginia’s Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack and Resort for $107m, the real estate investment trust acquires the land and real estate assets of each for $278m.
Simultaneous with the closing of the transaction Vici has entered into a triple-net master lease agreement with Century which has an initial total annual rent of $25m and a term of 15 years, with four 5-year renewal options.
John Payne, president and chief operating officer of Vici Properties, noted: “This transaction further diversifies our tenant roster, adds three competitive regional assets to our portfolio and expands our geographic footprint into a new market, West Virginia.
“We are excited to partner with Century, as they are expert operators of small to mid-sized regional assets and we look forward to supporting the Century team in further growing their US regional gaming platform.”
Isle Casino Cape Girardeau features 41,500 square feet of casino space, 863 gaming machines, 20 table games, the Lady Luck Caruthersville riverboat offering consists of a dockside casino featuring 21,000 square feet of casino space, 507 slot machines and nine table games and Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack and Resort offers 1,486 slot machines, 36 table games and a poker room.
“We are very excited to be expanding into Missouri and West Virginia,” Erwin Haitzmann and Peter Hoetzinger, co-chief executive officers of Century Casinos, remarked. “Cape Girardeau, Caruthersville and Mountaineer are great additions to our portfolio. We look forward to working with the staff and communities to continue the current success at these properties into the future.”
Tom Reeg, chief executive officer of Eldorado, said of the deal: “The agreements to divest Mountaineer Casino, Isle Casino Cape Girardeau and Lady Luck Casino Caruthersville are consistent with our continued focus on reducing debt ahead of the expected closing for the Caesars transaction in the first half of 2020.”