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Real estate mogul Steven Witkoff is pushing back the opening of a $3.1 billion resort on the Las Vegas Strip by more than a year, slowing efforts to complete a partly built casino that was abandoned during the financial crisis a decade ago, Bloomberg News reported. The Drew Las Vegas, as the project is called, will open in the second quarter of 2022, Witkoff said. The project was originally scheduled to debut late next year. By delaying, Witkoff will have more certainty about his construction budget, he said. Witkoff bought the unfinished Fontainebleau resort from billionaire investor Carl Icahn for $600 million two years ago. The 3,780-room resort will feature a giant pool, with restaurants and shops adjacent. While many Las Vegas operators have remodeled or renamed their hotels, a major new resort hasn’t opened since the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas in 2010. The previous developer of the Drew site, Miami’s Jeffrey Soffer, spent $2.8 billion before putting the project into bankruptcy. 

There will be a chapter 11 case conference concerning the 2006 bankruptcy filing by the New York Racing Association (NYRA) in April, News10.com reported. NYRA says that this notice is not connected to its current financial status. "The case referenced in this administrative notice is not related to the current financial state of The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA), but rather a notice of a routine conference related to NYRA’s 2006 bankruptcy," according to communications director Patrick McKenna. "In 2018, NYRA’s operating income from racing operations was $2.2 million, marking the fifth consecutive year that NYRA posted an operating profit." NYRA voluntarily filed for chapter 11 in 2006 in exchange for debt relief and permission to install video lottery terminals at the Aqueduct Racetrack.  Custody of the Saratoga, Belmont, and Aqueduct race courses was also handed over to the state. That chapter 11 case was lifted in 2009.

A company that makes Warrior-brand golf clubs and manages 18 golf courses filed for bankruptcy after missing two key payments, the latest in a series of setbacks that have plagued the business, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Irvine, Calif.-based Westwind Manor Resort Association Inc. and related businesses sought protection from creditors on Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Laredo, Texas, with about $55 million in liabilities. Its Warrior Custom Golf Inc. business makes clubs and has about 70 employees. It typically has annual revenue of about $15 million. Over the years, the private company also has raised more than $100 million from about 2,200 investors to buy golf courses. That division has about 270 employees. The courses generate about $13 million in annual revenue but had a $680,000 operating loss last year. Jeremy Rosenthal, chief restructuring officer, laid out several reasons for the bankruptcy, including a drop in the number of golfers, too many courses, and rising water, equipment and labor costs.

Caesars Entertainment Corp. gave Carl Icahn seats on its board, putting the billionaire in position to influence the choice of a new chief executive officer and push harder for a sale of the gambling giant, Bloomberg News reported. Three Icahn-backed candidates, Keith Cozza, Courtney Mather and James Nelson, will replace three existing board members effective immediately, Caesars said in a statement Friday. Icahn has the right to appoint a fourth member if a CEO amenable to the new directors isn’t chosen within 45 days. Caesars, the largest owner of casinos in the U.S., is under pressure from shareholders to boost returns or find a buyer. In recent weeks, investors including Icahn, Canyon Partners and Oppenheimer Funds have all urged the company to consider a sale. Caesars CEO Mark Frissora is slated to step down at the end of April and the company has been searching for his replacement. The Las Vegas-based company, whose properties include the flagship Caesars Palace and the Harrah’s chain, is still coping with the fallout of a 2008 leveraged buyout led by Apollo Global Management and TPG that left it with a mountain of debt. The company engineered a bankruptcy of its largest unit two years ago that brought in new board members and shareholders, including distressed debt investors.

Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s largest shareholder, Canyon Partners LLC, called for the sale of the company, joining a chorus of large investors pressuring the casino operator to find a buyer, Bloomberg News reported. “Canyon’s current view is that shareholder value would be best served and enhanced by an open sale process that will be presented to shareholders for a vote thereon,” the company said on Friday. The largest owner of casinos in the U.S., Caesars has struggled since a 2008 leveraged buyout piled debt on the company’s balance sheet. The Las Vegas-based company put its largest unit in bankruptcy, emerging two years ago with new shareholders and a board that included distressed-debt investors. Chief Executive Officer Mark Frissora has said that he’ll step down at the end of April after extending his planned exit by two months. Canyon holds almost 70 million shares, or more than 10 percent, making it the largest stockholder, according to Bloomberg data. Other investors have also called for a sale. Oppenheimer Funds, an owner of 10 million shares, said on Thursday the company shouldn’t name a new CEO or board members until current management considers a sale. Billionaire Carl Icahn, who disclosed a 9.8 percent stake in the company on Tuesday, said in a filing a sale would be the best option going forward. Caesars said that it would continue to engage in a dialog with Icahn.

The company that operates the Quality Inn & Suites and Charleston Capitol Hotel has filed for bankruptcy, the Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette-Mail reported. Charleston Hotel VII, LLC filed for chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of West Virginia on Wednesday. The business has between $1 million and $10 million in assets and liabilities, according to the bankruptcy filing. In 2016, the hotels were sold at a foreclosure sale, then bought again by California-based CRU Real Estate Group two weeks later.