They’re excellent from a gaming standpoint and a non-gaming standpoint. How favorable are the demographics around Durango and why? You’re right, we sat on that for a long time but they decided now is the time and I agree. It makes sense for everybody: the company, the neighborhood, the ownership. I’m not necessarily going to speak for Frank III and Lorenzo Fertitta but the circumstances, post-pandemic, the city on the rise, everything else that’s being developed at this time and it’s the right time to capitalize, and some of the things Frank and Lorenzo have done gave them the opportunity to start this venture. What prompted the timing of the development? Station Casinos has had the Durango site for 20 years-plus. The Sonoma County native and University of Nevada-Las Vegas graduate grabbed a few minutes out of his schedule to speak with Casino Life. He’s worked virtually every Station property that exists, beginning in 1994 as a front-desk clerk at Palace Station. So it was only logical that he oversee the latest wrinkle in Station’s evolving image, Durango. To helm Durango, the Fertitta brothers tapped 28-year Station veteran David Horn, who had also steered the reinvented Palace Station, to great success. Ground was broken for Durango last March and construction has proceeded at a furious pace. But Station CEO Frank Fertitta III and brother – and fellow board member – Lorenzo Fertitta were good and ready to pull the trigger when Las Vegas rebounded from the Covid-19 pandemic, and as their company rode the crest of the recovery. Station has held the land (formerly “Rhodes Ranch”) for more than 20 years, and the project has moved on and off the front burner more times than it would be possible to remember. But Durango Casino is its first big one in well over a decade. That’s a long time for Station Casinos to be inactive, and it’s done some small projects here and there. The $750 million locals resort is Station’s first large-scale development since flagship Red Rock Resort in 2006 and Aliante Station, which bowed on the eve of the Great Recession of 2008. One year from the time you read this, Station will have opened Durango Casino & Hotel, ticketed for a December 2023 debut.

It has projects in various stages of incubation: at the Inspirada master-planned resort in Henderson, Nevada, up at Skye Canyon, at the Tule Springs development in North Las Vegas, and just next door to Michael Gaughan’s South Point, at the southern terminus of the Las Vegas Strip. The company and its parent corporation, Red Rock Resorts, has resolved to double its presence in the Las Vegas Valley by 2030, a presence built up over the past 47 years. Fast-moving Station Casinos remakes its image yet again with Durango Casino & Hotel.

Durango resort and casino