PRIMM, NEVADA Pricey designer furnishings meant for the luxurious Fontainebleau Las Vegas have instead been installed at the midscale Buffalo Bill’s Resort & Casino in Primm.
The Las Vegas Strip’s partially-finished megaresort Fontainebleau held a fire sale for furnishings and fixtures a few months ago. Herbst, which is struggling to fend off bankruptcy, spent about US$2.7 million this month to renovate its 1,242-key Buffalo Bill’s with chairs, desks and dressers—even some corridor carpeting—that were originally meant to decorate Fontainebleau.
“They are pretty nice furnishings,” Stuart Richey, Herbst’s vice president of marketing, tells Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We wanted to do something nice for our guests.” Buffalo Bill’s was closed from November 29 to December 23 to allow for the renovation.
Carl Icahn in January acquired the shell of the 3,800-key Fontainebleau for US$151 million. More than US$2 billion has already been spent on the development, and analysts believe another US$1.5 billion would need to be spent to finish the project. It is unclear when or if the development will ever open.