Icahn wins bid for Fontainebleau Las Vegas

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn will take control of the bankrupt, incomplete Fontainebleau Las Vegas by default, after submitting the only qualifying bid for the casino resort. Court papers filed this week canceled the auction for the property, which was scheduled for Thursday in Miami. Icahn Nevada Gaming Acquisition submitted the only qualified bid, for $156.5 million, including financing, and the sale could be finalized by Jan. 27. Eve Karasik, attorney for the Chapter 11 examiner, said two other, unidentified bidders didn’t include deposits and couldn’t demonstrate the necessary financial health. Penn National Gaming dropped out of the bidding race Jan. 14. The 63-story Fontainebleau, which was about two-thirds done when about 70 percent complete at a cost of $2 billion when developer Jeffrey Soffer filed for bankruptcy on the project in June, is on 27 acres at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip. Completion costs are estimated at $1.5 billion.