In the heart of Las Vegas, a well-off family sits back and rakes in an unbelievable $10,000 a day off of an empty plot of land – without ever lifting a finger.
The Elardi family, former owners of the now-demolished Frontier hotel on the coveted Las Vegas Strip, continue to profit handsomely from a 16-acre parcel of land they lease to Wynn Resorts for $4million annually – more than $10,000 a day.
Remarkably, the sprawling land remains vacant, with Wynn also covering the pricey property taxes, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The cost-effective arrangement has persisted for over two decades, despite multiple failed development attempts for the 16-acre abandoned lot.
As a result, the Elardi family continues to collect the substantial rent payments from the barren plot – a phenomenon dominating Sin City’s real estate market.
The odd arrangement is part of a growing trend on the Las Vegas Strip, where landowners lease properties to developers for significant sums, even when the land remains undeveloped.
‘It is a little surprising that you don’t see more,’ Michael Parks, a hotel-casino specialist with real estate brokerage CBRE Group, who has done numerous deals on and near Las Vegas Boulevard, told the LVRJ.
Parks said he is unsure as to why the Elardi family kept the portion of their undeveloped site when they sold the Frontier hotel in the 1990s.
The Elardi family, former owners of the now-demolished Frontier hotel on the coveted Las Vegas Strip, continue to profit handsomely from a 16-acre parcel (pictured) of land they lease to Wynn Resorts for $4 million annually
Parks said he is unsure as to why the Elardi family kept the portion of their undeveloped site when they sold the Frontier hotel in the 1990s. Pictured: The New Frontier Hotel & Casino closes its doors after 65 years of operation on July 16, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada
The real estate professional added that he has tried to bring prospective buyers to the family over the years but has never heard back, the LVRJ reported.
The Elardis, who also own Casino Royal on the Strip, have not commented on their lucrative land deal.
Meanwhile, Wynn Resorts has expressed interest in developing the leased land.
However, the luxury resort and casino company’s CEO Craig Billings has also indicated that the company is currently focused on other properties, including a resort in the United Arab Emirates.
‘We obviously have a very substantial land bank here in Las Vegas. So, we have years and years and years of growth ahead of us,’ Billings said during an earnings call.
The hotel and casino company CEO added that he often gets asked ‘why’ the Sin City property is not moving forward, to which he explains: ‘The reality is that from a capital perspective, from a bandwidth perspective, within our amazing design and development team, there are only so many things, frankly, that one can do at once.
‘And then, of course, there are opportunities that come along that are timed out you want to make sure that you’re in a position to participate.’
Margaret Elardi, who had owned a casino in downtown Las Vegas and another in Laughlin – 96 miles from the Strip – acquired the Frontier hotel and a neighboring property – the Silver Slipper – in 1988.
The multimillion dollar property owner, who was described by Forbes magazine as a ‘grand dame with brass knuckles,’ later demolished the Silver Slipper, turning into a parking lot for the adjacent hotel.
According to the Culinary Union, during Elardi’s ownership of the Frontier, workers held a six-year-long strike that featured a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week picket line.
The strike was reportedly over cuts to compensation and benefits and saw more than 500 workers gather outside the luxury hotel.
Margaret Elardi, who had owned a casino in downtown Las Vegas and another in Laughlin – 96 miles from the Strip – acquired the Frontier hotel and a neighboring property – the Silver Slipper – in 1988
The 16-acre vacant lot on the southwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Genting Boulevard on Thursday, March 6, 2025
An exterior of the New Frontier Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 984-room property, in operation since 1942, was the second resort to open on the Las Vegas Strip
The New Frontier Hotel & Casino located on the Las Vegas Strip is imploded on November 13, 2007 in Las Vegas
The record-breaking protest, reported as the nation’s longest ongoing labor dispute at the time, didn’t end until 1998 when Kansas businessman Phil Ruffin purchased the Frontier.
Ruffin took ownership in early 1998 after agreeing to buy the hotel for more than $160million, according to the LVRJ.
Elardi, who died in 2021, didn’t sell the whole property, though.
County records show that she leased the northern portion of it to Ruffin in 1998 for a term of 99 years.
Ruffin, now the owner of Treasure Island and Circus Circus, told the outlet that he tried to buy the other parcel but that Elardi ‘wanted to keep it for her grandchildren.’
He said Elardi was a good businessperson and good operator up against an industry dominated by male casino owners, adding that he figured her grandkids would never have to work, given the rental income from the vacant plot on the Strip.
‘It’s a very nice legacy she left her grandchildren,’ Ruffin said in an interview.
As the Elardi family continues to capitalize on their $4-million-a-year deal, residents of the major metropolitan and Nevada as a whole feel failed by the politicians that have let the city slip to its demise as prices only continue to skyrocket.
People from California and other expensive states have flocked to Nevada for more affordable housing – causing the home prices to soar even more.
Rent in Las Vegas is 35 percent higher now than in December 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
Las Vegas Realtors found that tight inventory and high interest rates are shaping the market in their most recent report.
According to the housing market statistics, the average house price of a single family home is around $821,000, while a condo/townhouse comes in at $335,000.
It’s not just residents of Las Vegas who have noticed the soaring prices. Regular tourists of Sin City have picked up on the increasingly expensive lifestyle as well.
Rent in Las Vegas is 35 percent higher now than in December 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit
People from California and other expensive states have flocked to Nevada for more affordable housing – causing the home prices to soar even more
One tourist said that they packed a $20 collapsible kettle in their luggage so they could make instant oatmeal for breakfast every morning because food on the Strip had become so exorbitant, adding that they think it saved them $250 over their five-day trip.
The visitor said that they even brought a collapsible cooler so that they didn’t have to buy soda or ‘adult beverages’ during the vacation.
‘We were there in March and spent almost 3x more than we did for the same duration trip in March 2020. It will be a while [until] we return,’ another tourist on Reddit reported.
A Wall Street-backed corporate landlord snapped up hundreds of homes in Las Vegas in a mammoth one-off residential sale last summer.
Dallas-based Invitation Homes shelled out $98 million to buy 264 homes in Clark County, property records show.
The deal forms part of a $650 million swap of a portfolio of close to 1,900 single-family rental homes between billionaire Barry Sternlicht’s private equity fund Starwood Capital and Invitation Homes.
Invitation Homes now owns 3,500 homes in Clark County, making it the second-largest owner of single-family rental homes, according to data from the Las Vegas Review Journal.
It comes as the Nevada city struggles with an acute shortage of housing, with evictions on the rise. Las Vegas has the worst shortage of affordable housing of any US city.