Las Vegas Review-Journal

Boyd Gaming plans new HQ in valley

- By Eli Segall Las Vegas Review-journal

After a handful of companies moved to newly built headquarte­rs in the southwest valley, another wants to join the pack.

Las Vegas casino operator Boyd Gaming Corp. filed plans to construct two 10-story office buildings at the northeast corner of Buffalo Drive and Sunset Road, across from slot-machine maker Internatio­nal Game Technology’s campus.

One building would span 322,600 square feet and the other 316,600 square feet. The project would include a six-level parking garage, according to Clark County documents.

Boyd purchased the 10.8-acre site for

$11.4 million, property records show. The land sale, by Las Vegas businessma­n Jason Awad, closed Jan. 8.

TThe company does not have a constructi­on timeline, and the campus it builds might differ from what is outlined in county planning documents, as those reflect the maximum Boyd can develop, spokesman David Strow said.

Boyd’s new headquarte­rs would be just a mile or so west of its current primary office building. Other casino operators, including MGM Resorts

25-year-old MGM Grand is planning to revamp its Strip facade.

Executives are studying ways to create more buzz on its segment of Las Vegas Boulevard to attract more pedestrian­s, said MGM Grand President and Chief Operating Officer Scott Sibella, who has been running the property the past seven years.

“We are discussing redevelopi­ng that entire frontage of the building out to the Las Vegas Strip,” Sibella said.

MGM Grand has 700 rooms in the west wing — the former Marina Internatio­nal and Caesars Entertainm­ent Corp., also have office buildings in town, but locally, resort companies are known for housing most of their staff in the hotels, not in office parks.

CBRE Group broker Randy Broadhead, an office specialist, agreed that it’s rare for a casino operator to build a corporate campus in Las Vegas. hotel — that stretches toward the boulevard “and our goal is to blow it out to the Strip and open it up like some other properties have done,” he said.

Pedestrian­s strolling by MGM Grand along the Strip enter the sprawling building only through an elevator or find an entrance tucked in a side street.

The revamp will include restaurant­s and retail, allowing more people to enter the sprawling 5,000-room property from the Strip side, he said.

New York-new York and Caesars Palace are among resorts that have

But quality office space is “getting hard to find” along the 215 Beltway, and that might have prompted Boyd to build its own, he said.

Plus, barring “another massive recession,” land prices aren’t getting cheaper, office broker Dan Palmeri of Cushman & Wakefield said.

Boyd, whose casinos include The Orleans, the Suncoast and downtown’s California Hotel, operated 17 properties nationwide and had 18,000 employees when it moved to its four-story office building at Rainbow Boulevard and Sunset more than a decade ago, Strow said.

The company now has 29 properties and more than 25,000 employees, he said.

“We’ve grown substantia­lly as a company over that time period, and as a result, we’ve simply outgrown this location,” he said.

Boyd also wants to house its corporate personnel in one spot, he added. Most are based at the Rainbow and Sunset building, but senior executives work from the Hughes Center office park near the Strip, and other staff are based elsewhere, Strow said.

The goal, he said, is to have “everyone working under one roof.”

Clark County commission­ers approved Boyd’s project plans Oct. 17.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@ reviewjour­nal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.

 ?? Todd Prince Las Vegas Review-journal ?? The corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and East Tropicana Avenue is seen Wednesday. MGM plans to make the MGM Grand more open to pedestrian­s on the Strip.
Todd Prince Las Vegas Review-journal The corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and East Tropicana Avenue is seen Wednesday. MGM plans to make the MGM Grand more open to pedestrian­s on the Strip.
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