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The off-Strip Palms Casino Resort, which has been shuttered for more than two years, will remain closed for a few more weeks while the management team hired by the property’s new owner continues to work out the opening plans.
Southern California’s San Manuel Band of Mission Indians acquired the 703-room property from Red Rock Resorts for $650 million last year. In December, Nevada gaming regulators signed off on the deal in which San Manuel became the first American Indian-owned enterprise to own and operate a casino resort in Las Vegas.
The tribe installed longtime Las Vegas gaming executive Cynthia Kiser Murphey as the Palms’ general manager. The tribe originally targeted late March for the potential reopening.
Murphey told Nevada gaming regulators the Palms would open “as soon as we can and as soon as we can do it right.”
The Palms was one of four Red Rock properties that remained closed following the state’s 78-day shutdown of gaming because of the pandemic. While the Palms will soon welcome back customers, the future is unclear for the other three casinos – Texas Station, Fiesta Rancho and Fiesta Henderson.
Prior to the closure, the Palms had 1,200 employees. Murphey hoped to rehire between 500 and 600 of the workers, “given the current labor market conditions in Las Vegas.” She said the returning employees would receive their seniority and benefits.
In an email Tuesday, Murphey said the Palms would reopen “this spring,” but hesitated to provide an opening date.
“We have seen an amazing response to our recruitment events in the past few weeks,” Murphey said. “Our team interviewed over 1,800 candidates in just nine days with many of those candidates highly qualified for the positions they seek.”
She said the property had also initiated recall efforts to bring back eligible Palms employees.
“(We) are happy to report we will be making job offers to many recall-eligible team members,” Murphey said. “As you can imagine, from property turnover to opening, we have had to move quickly.”
Murphey, who was president of MGM Resorts International’s New York-New York Hotel-Casino on the Strip for more than 10 years, told gaming regulators the Palms was “an incredibly beautiful property” that was “remodeled with meticulous attention to detail, beautiful rooms, amazing suites, 23 beautiful restaurants and a very vibrant gaming floor.”
On Tuesday, the Palms announced that Mabel’s BBQ by Chef Michael Symon will return to the casino. The restaurant was one of several new eateries added during the resort’s renovations prior to the shutdown.
In addition to the hotel, the Palms has the 599-unit Palms Place condominium tower. The 100,000 square-foot Palms casino has 1,400 slot machines and 55 table games and a race and sportsbook that will be operated by Caesars Entertainment-owned William Hill US.
The long shutdown required water pressure testing and infrastructure checks to make sure everything still worked, as well as refreshing the parking lot and landscaping. Several locations that featured high-priced artwork owned by Red Rock need restoration.
“As for capital investment, we are going to remodel the back of the house and make the employee facilities more appealing,” Murphey said.
Meanwhile, the San Manuel Tribe is going through its own changes.
Former tribal chairwoman Lynn Valbuena was elected as tribal chair after leaving the position in 2020. The San Manuel Tribe has yet to make a…
Read More: Indy Gaming: Palms ‘moving quickly’ toward reopening in the spring