Its newest hotel landlord, Blackstone, just announced Monday that it’s selling the neighboring Cosmopolitan for $5.65 billion. With the closing of the Aria and Vdara deals, MGM has now sold off the remaining pieces of Cit圜enter, a 67-acre, bubble-era project that ran into steep problems as the economy crashed a decade or so ago but has now been purchased in chunks for mountains of money. MGM has sold multiple megaresorts on the Strip over the past few years to Blackstone and leased them back as part of its “asset-light” strategy of shedding ownership of its real estate. As announced in July, MGM is leasing the properties back for an initial annual rent of $215 million. The New York financial conglomerate purchased the hotels’ real estate for nearly $3.9 billion. MGM announced Tuesday that it completed a $2 billion-plus buyout of its partner in the multi-tower Cit圜enter complex, giving the casino giant full ownership of the Aria and Vdara resorts, and that it closed its sale-leaseback of those properties with Blackstone. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) day after it unveiled plans to operate The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, MGM Resorts International said it closed a sale-leaseback of two other towering hotels on the Strip - with the Cosmo’s seller, no less. Aria and Vdara in Las Vegas Thursday, July 1, 2021.
