$1.1B Sale of Las Vegas Strip Retail Center Closes

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

The Shops at Crystals Las Vegas

Las Vegas—A 50-50 joint venture of Simon Property Group and Invesco Real Estate has closed its purchase, for about $1.1 billion, of The Shops at Crystals in Las Vegas, the two companies announced Friday. The seller was a joint venture between MGM Resorts and Infinity World Development Group, an affiliate of Dubai World Corp.

On behalf of the joint venture, Simon will lease and manage The Shops at Crystals, which features about 324,000 square feet of luxury retail space at the entryway of MGM Resorts’ $9 billion CityCenter complex on the Las Vegas Strip. The retail property is anchored by 10 luxury flagship stores, including Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Tom Ford, Prada, Fendi and Tiffany & Co., on top of 30 more luxury retailers, including Céline, Saint Laurent and Richard Mille, whose only Las Vegas presence is at the center.

The property is part of MGM’s Aria Resort & Casino and includes a dedicated tram station connecting it to the Bellagio Resort & Casino and Monte Carlo Resort & Casino.

The purchase adds to Simon’s already impressive Vegas portfolio, which includes The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas North Premium Outlets and Las Vegas South Premium Outlets.

The transaction had been rumored in early March, though with only Simon as the purchaser, and was confirmed, with the addition of Invesco, a couple of weeks later.

The buyers might face a challenge in sustaining or boosting sales at The Shops at Crystals. A new visitor profile from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority showed that while the average trip expenditure by visitors on shows was up from previous years, the average amount spent on shopping was down significantly, from $149.77 in 2014 to $122.66 in 2015.

Interestingly, while both the average number of casinos at which visitors gambled and the number of hours spent gambling have declined over the past five years, also according to the LVCVA, the average trip gambling budget was up substantially, to $578.54, from $484.70 in 2012.

Image courtesy of The Shops at Crystals Facebook page