Financing Goes Ahead for Four-Mile Vegas Monorail

 

GM Mirage Inc. and Park Place Entertainment Corp. have completed a $650 million financing deal for the construction and operation of a monorail to cover four miles of the Las Vegas strip. The project was a private joint venture under MGM Grand-Bally's Monorail LLC. The Las Vegas Monorail Co., a nonprofit corporation, will own and operate the monorail.
       

MGM Mirage and Park Place Entertainment are two of the world's largest gaming companies. The monorail will be four miles long, linking the convention center and several of the top casinos on the Las Vegas strip. The system, set to open in 2003, will serve 20 million people a year.
       

MGM Grand-Bally's Monorail was represented by Los Angeles' Nossaman Guthner Knox & Elliott. From the firm's headquarters, partners Geoffrey Yarema, Nancy Smith, Linda Cunningham and Barney Allison worked on the transaction. Partner Robert Thornton participated from the firm's Irvine office. The team was assisted by Las Vegas' Jones Vargus. Partners Gregory Jensen, Michael Buckley and Richard Jost worked with of-counsel Craig Norville and associates Kris Ballard and Edward Garcia.
       

Michael Niarchos, general counsel to the Las Vegas Monorail Co., was assisted by Las Vegas' Kummer Kaempfer Bonner & Renshaw. Partners Michael Bonner and John Brewer worked with associate Elizabeth Savage on the deal.
       

Ken Smith was counsel to the builders, Granite Construction Inc. Bombardier Transit Corp., which will supply the equipment and operate the system, called on Philadelphia's Morgan Lewis & Bockius. Partner Christopher Hilbert worked with associate Eric Iversen at the firm's New York office. Associate Mark Bruce of Reno's Bible Hoy & Trachok assisted in the representation of both Granite Construction and Bombardier Transit.
       

Underwriter Salomon Smith Barney was represented by partner Douglas Brown and associate Gregory Blonde of Newport Beach's Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth. The state of Nevada Department of Business and Industry acted as conduit issuers of the bonds. Nevada Deputy Attorney General Victoria Oldenburg worked on the deal with assistance from outside attorney Robert Barengo. San Francisco's Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe served as co-bond counsel, led by partners Robert Feyer and Charles Cardall.