Mayor Pressures Sands To Fulfill Promise
Las Vegas Sands (LVS: 19.50 +1.14%) executives were met with some resistance during their scheduled hearing with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board yesterday, to discuss the renewal of the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem’s gaming license.
Mayor John Callahan has asked the Board to tie the license renewal to a construction timeline on the casino’s stalled hotel, mall and conference center, suggesting they are in the prime position to “pressure” Sands to complete the project.
“Bethlehem and the state invested a great deal in this project and are entitled to a firmer timetable for restarting construction,” he said.
However Sands officials told the Board that they were unable to put a timeline on restarting the project that has been stalled since October 2008, until the financial markets improved.
“We don’t think the project is financeable now,” Las Vegas Sands Corps. General Counsel Fred Kraus said during the three-hour hearing at Town Hall. “The cost to complete is in excess of $100 million, that’s something that needs financing.”
Meanwhile, LVS President and COO Michael Leven said they would reevaluate the project at the end of the year, after the casino rolls out table games.
“We have no plans to start the hotel again until we can see the results from table games, until we can justify it financially,” Leven said.
Both remarks are contradictory to those made by CEO Sheldon Adelson in June, when he promised to build a major resort in Bethlehem including the 1,000 room hotel, if the state legalized table games.
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