LVCVA sells former Riviera Hotel 10-acre parcel to Sun Dreams co-founder for $120M

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) Board of Directors unanimously approved on Tuesday the sale and licensed use of a 10-acre parcel at the southeast corner of the Las Vegas and Elvis Presley boulevards for $120 million.

The Strip-front property has been acquired by CB Investment SpA, a Chilean resort and real estate developer operated by brothers Claudio and Humberto Fischer, who operate the Monticello resort near Santiago, Chile.

Steve Hill, LVCVA President and CEO, told board members he met with Claudio Fischer in regards to the sale, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal. Proceeds from the sale will be used to finance the renovation of four exhibit halls over a two-year period.

The parcel will be developed into a casino-hotel resort. Under the contract, the construction must begin by Jan. 1, 2031. The ten acres had served as a portion of the land of the former Riviera Hotel.

Claudio Fischer has a successful business portfolio of casinos, as well as residential and commercial real estate, primarily in South America. The gaming mogul is the co-founder of Sun Dreams, the largest casino-resort operator in Latin America, with 19 properties in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Panama and Peru.

Fischer has allegedly been interested in developing a project at Vegas for some time now. Steve Hill was asked by KSNV if Fischer had given him any indication of when he plans to start building to which the LVCVA CEO responded: “I think given the situation with the pandemic, he would like to build as soon as it made sense.”

The LVCVA gets to use the land for outdoor displays until development begins. The Convention and Visitors Authority has been sitting on this land since 2015, when it paid $182 million for the Riviera.

The 10 acres were afterward put on the market by the LVCVA in 2019. International interest was expected for the property. A deal with Fischer was allegedly ready to be signed in 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic put the transaction on pause, with talks resumed this year. Closing is expected to happen by June 30th, 2022.

“We see the parcel as a real opportunity for the entire neighborhood,” said Hill. “The growth of the north end part of the Strip is important to us and we see this as a real opportunity – there’s just a lot of great things going on in this area of the resort corridor.”