Bally’s sells Tiverton property for $635M in lease-back deal

BALLY'S CORP. on Wednesday said is has sold the properties and buildings of Bally’s Tiverton Casino & Hotel in Tiverton and Bally's Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi in Biloxi, Miss., to Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. for $635 million. / PBN FILE PHOTO/DAVE HANSEN

PROVIDENCE – Bally’s Corp. on Wednesday said it has sold the properties and buildings of Bally’s Tiverton Casino & Hotel in Tiverton and Bally’s Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi in Biloxi, Miss., to Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. for $635 million.

Gaming & Leisure Properties will take over ownership of the land and buildings of both properties and Bally’s will lease back those sites while continuing to own, control and manage all the gaming operations of the facilities uninterrupted.

“We are pleased to have completed another transaction with GLPI,” said Bobby Lavan, chief financial officer of Bally’s. “This marks an important step for us, ensuring Bally’s is best positioned for continued growth.”

The transaction was a stipulation in the $1 billion deal Bally’s announced on June 28. In that deal, Bally’s agreed to sell and lease back the properties and buildings of its two Rhode Island gaming facilities, Tiverton Casino & Hotel in Tiverton and Twin River Casino in Lincoln, to Gaming & Leisure Properties.

- Advertisement -

However, that original deal stated, “If all third-party consents and approvals for the acquisition of Lincoln are not timely received, then GLP will instead acquire the real property assets of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi in Mississippi along with Tiverton for total consideration of $635 million and a combined annual rent for Tiverton and Biloxi of $48.5 million.”

It was not clear if the deal for the Lincoln property had fallen through or which “third-party consents and approvals” were not received for the original $1 billion deal.

Bally’s spokesperson Richard Goldman would only refer to the paragraph from the original deal and R.I. Department of Revenue spokesperson Paul Grimaldi did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

The Tiverton and Biloxi properties have been added to Bally’s Master Lease with Gaming & Leisure Properties, which includes Bally’s Dover Casino Resort, Bally’s Evansville Casino & Hotel, Bally’s Quad Cities Casino & Hotel and Bally’s Black Hawk Casinos. The rent for the Master Lease was increased by $48.5 million on an annual basis on account of the transaction.

On Nov. 21, Bally’s Corp. sold the property for its proposed Chicago casino to Gaming & Leisure Properties in a $500 million lease-back deal.

Bally’s completed its acquisition of the Tropicana Las Vegas from Penn Entertainment and Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. on Sept. 27. As part of the deal, Bally’s paid $148 million for the nonland assets of the Tropicana, payable to Gaming & Leisure Properties. Bally’s is leasing the 35-acre parcel at the corner of Tropicana Boulevard and Las Vegas Boulevard for 50 years at an annual rent of $10.5 million.

On April 4, Bally’s Corp. sold two casino properties in Illinois and Colorado to Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. in a $150 million lease-back deal.

No posts to display