Boyd Gaming JV Closes $950M Borgata Hotel Casino Debt Financing Deal
Marina District Development Co., the Las Vegas-based 50/50 joint venture that owns the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, N.J., has wrapped up debt financing totaling $950 million.
By Barbra Murray, Contributing Writer
Marina District Development Co., the Las Vegas-based 50/50 joint venture that owns the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, N.J., has wrapped up debt financing totaling $950 million. The Borgata has been under the control of joint venture partner Boyd Gaming Corp. since March of this year, when joint venture partner MGM Resorts International solidified a settlement agreement with the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement that called for the MGM Resorts to transfer its interest in the property into a divestiture trust.
Boyd and MGM Resorts partnered to develop Borgata in 2003. The casino resort, erected at a cost of about $1.1 billion, features 2,000 guestrooms, a 161,000-square-foot casino floor, 70,000 square feet of meeting space, a 54,000-square-foot spa, as well as a 2,400-seat event center, a 1,000-seat theater, retail offerings and restaurants. The property also encompasses the Water Club, a hotel built as part of a $600 million expansion endeavor that reached completion in 2008.
The new financing comes in the form of two $400 million tranches of senior secured notes, due in October 2015 and August 2018, and a $150 million payment priority secured revolving credit facility scheduled to mature in August 2014. The funds will be utilized to eliminate Borgata’s existing bank credit facility and to facilitate a one-time distribution totaling about $215 million to the joint venture partners. Additionally, some of the money will be used for transaction fees and expenses.
MGM Resorts has sold some of its Borgata assets held in the divestiture trust. In late July, Vornado Realty Trust and Geyser Holdings acquired the company’s portion of the four long-term ground leases and the corresponding underlying real property parcels at the Atlantic City gaming property for $73 million. As for MGM Resorts’ ownership stake in the actual casino, it is still up for grabs, although Boyd holds the first right of refusal on the disposition.
