WWF Has Theme Plans for Hotel
The World Wrestling Federation, after winning a mini-bidding war for Debbie Reynolds Hotel & Casino, said Friday it plans to convert the bankrupt Las Vegas property into a themed resort to showcase its cast of hulking characters.
The WWF was forced to raise its initial $10-million offer after an outside creditor appeared in court to bid $10.5 million.
But the WWF upped its final offer to $10.6 million, which was approved Friday by U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Las Vegas. Late Thursday, the judge reopened the auction process when it became clear the hotel-casino owned by the 66-year-old actress-singer could command a higher price.
WWF’s parent, Stamford, Conn.-based Titan Sports Inc., said the company will now move forward with plans to renovate and create a WWF-themed hotel and casino. The company has until Monday to pay 20% of the down payment, with the balance due two weeks after that.
Titan will get the 193-room hotel and casino, the 500-seat showroom and six acres of land just off the Las Vegas Strip. Reynolds opened the hotel in 1993.
But almost from its opening day, the hotel struggled financially, largely because it was “undercapitalized and over-financed, and it never really had enough money to get going,” said Lenard Schwartzer, attorney for Debbie Reynolds Hotel & Casino Inc.
Closely held Titan, whose WWF events are some of the most popular programs on cable television, is banking on the celebrity of such acts as Stone Cold Steve Austin and Degeneration X to turn it into a profit-making venture, said WWF Senior Vice President Ed Kaufman.
The company, eyeing the myriad other colossal hotel/casinos that now dot the gambling mecca such as New York New York hotel/casino and the forthcoming 3,000-room Bellagio, hopes to expand the property into an 800-room hotel.
“We just think this is a natural extension of the entertainment we offer,” Kaufman said. “It’s a perfect niche because our fans already go” to Las Vegas.
One of the reasons the hotel never took off, observers said, was its location, which is not on the Strip and not downtown, the two prime casino-rich locales.
But Kaufman said Titan was not concerned with its location. “It’s not as off-the-beaten-path as most people think,” he said. “It’s less than a mile from the Las Vegas Convention Center, and we are a quarter of a mile off the Strip.”
Kaufman said each week an estimated 70,000 cars pass by the Convention Center, which is now among the top convention sites in the world, and the company is relying on that traffic to attract attention to its resort. He said plans could include expanding the hotel and casino onto two acres of undeveloped land, which is close to the Convention Center.
Schwartzer said Reynolds was disappointed with the $10.6-million purchase price, especially since there had been a $14-million offer made in March. That offer was withdrawn when another buyer offered to pay $15.6 million. The buyer, too, withdrew and soon afterward the property was put on the auction block.
“The sad thing is that there are people who bought time-shares in the hotel so they could be near Debbie Reynolds,” he said, “but instead of getting Debbie Reynolds they’ll be getting wrestlers.”
