The Drew Las Vegas might have just received the boost it needed to be completed. This was after it was issued with a licensing recommendation by the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB). Last week on Tuesday, Steve Witkoff, a renowned businessman and the owner of the Drew Las Vegas, appeared before the NGCB. Witkoff informed the regulatory board of his intentions once the renovation is complete.
He also provided a detailed explanation of the progress of work on the building. So far, Witkoff and his team have done a detailed preview of the building. He asserted that the renovations on the building will be of top-notch quality.
The regulatory board seemed to have been impressed with what Witkoff had to say as, by the end of the meeting, they gave their licensing recommendation. This is according to the Now Vegas and was initially reported by calvinayre.com.
Of course, the building will have to be inspected once more after construction is completed, but as of now, the NGCB has given their go-ahead on the project. This is the boost Witkoff needed as after the meeting he released a press statement saying the Drew Las Vegas would be opened by the fall of 2022. It is believed one of the reasons the board accepted Witkoff’s proposal is that finally, the building would be of added benefit to the city.
The building has been sitting around idle and incomplete for over a decade now, and because of this casino analysts have been wondering why such an asset in prime place was neglected. It’s only recently that Witkoff bought the building from Carl Icahn, a known billionaire, for $600 million. He had hoped to renovate it immediately and have it commissioned this year, but the cost for the project proved higher than he had expected.
This caused a delay in its opening. Another reason the board accepted Witkoff’s proposal, was partly because of the leadership the casino was expected to be under. In November last year, Witkoff announced that Bobby Baldwin would be the chairman and CEO of the Drew Las Vegas once it was launched. As expected, questions have popup as to whether he has what it takes to run it. On the other hand, claims are that Baldwin is popular among the residents of Las Vegas as well as the state of Nevada, for his outstanding capabilities.
Witkoff has quite an interesting story behind this multi-million project. He had once visited a medium, a move that was against what he believed. The medium told him that he would be visited by two blackbirds and that would be his sign. One afternoon, while in his Miami home with his girlfriend, two blackbirds appeared.
They landed on the golf cart and took two potato chips. He says that was the convincing he needed to come up with the project. It was from the experience that two subsidiaries of the Drew Las Vegas are named, Two Blackbirds Holdings and Two Blackbirds Hospitality Management.
