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Fitzgeralds Has New Owner

LAS VEGAS, Nevada – Dec. 6, 2001 --Ownership of the Fitzgeralds in downtown Las Vegas is slated to change early Friday as a Detroit businessman's company is scheduled to take over the 650-room property.

Don Barden will become the first black person to wholly own a Nevada casino when the Detroit native assumes ownership of Fitzgeralds.

Barden's Majestic Investor LLC's $149 million offer to buy Fitzgeralds' properties in Las Vegas, Mississippi and Colorado was accepted after Fitzgeralds filed for bankruptcy protection late last year.

The ownership change at Fitzgeralds' downtown Las Vegas; Tunica, Miss.; and Black Hawk, Colo., properties is expected to be completed by 1 a.m. Friday, Fitzgeralds marketing director Ed Serrano said.

"The change in ownership should be invisible to our guests," Serrano said. "They may see some extra guys in suits walking around, but that's about it."

Both the buyer and seller are expected to have teams of accountants supervising the ownership change, Serrano said.

The property employs about 900 workers, and no job cuts are planned by the new owners, he added.

Nevada Gaming Control Board audit division chief Greg Gale said the agency responsible for policing the state's 338 casinos will have two agents on site for the ownership change.

"The seller and buyer will have teams of CPAs supervising the counts," Gale said. "We'll be there in case there is a problem."

Fitzgeralds opened in 1988, the most recent opening for a Fremont Street hotel-casino and downtown's second-newest hotel-casino, after Main Street Station, which opened in 1996.

Serrano said Las Vegas Fitzgeralds executives have yet to learn of any changes Barden has planned for the property.

"The purchase is a positive move in the right direction," Serrano said. "Las Vegas will probably have some more flexibility on the use of capital."

Barden told state gaming regulators in October that he plans to keep the Fitzgeralds name on his new properties. He said he hopes the downtown Fitzgeralds will capitalize on its proximity to the Fremont Street Experience pedestrian mall and the still-under-construction Neonopolis retail mall.

The 57-year-old Detroit native made his money in real estate and construction before holding that city's first cable TV contract. His Majestic Star Casino - which sits about 20 miles southeast of Chicago - makes him the highest ranking black person in the American casino industry.

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