Friday, Jan. 17, 2025 | 12:49 p.m.
Billionaire Phil Ruffin is looking to sell Circus Circus and its prime real estate on the north end of the Las Vegas Strip, he told Forbes in an interview published today.
Ruffin bought the property for $825 million in late 2019, just over $1 billion in today’s money, and told the magazine it’s now worth $5 billion. He added that “there is interest” in the property.
“It’s the best piece of land on the West Coast,” he said. “It’s got the highway, it’s got the Sahara, it’s got 2,000 feet on the Strip, and it’s the last Strip property. And 102 acres is just a massive amount of land — you can almost build a city on it.”
Ruffin told Forbes he is looking to buy another property on the Strip once he sells Circus Circus but is open to ventures outside Nevada.
“Why do you think I bought Circus Circus? For the 102 acres,” he told the magazine. “That’s the land play. Remember what I did at the Frontier, how the value of the land went crazy — here it’s going crazier.”
Ruffin bought the Frontier in 1998 for $167 million. A decade later, he sold it for about $2.1 billion, a nearly eleven-fold increase in value after adjusting for inflation. He also owns Treasure Island, which he bought in 2009 for $775 million.
The billionaire is close friends with President-elect Donald Trump, donating millions to his presidential campaigns and co-owning Trump Tower Las Vegas with him.
Speaking to Forbes, Ruffin opined up on his conversations with the incoming president about foreign and domestic policy.
Ruffin said Trump’s immigration policy would “concentrate on criminals.” CNN reported today that the president-elect is looking to quickly kick off United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps in major metro areas and declare a national emergency.
Trump also said earlier this month he was open to using military and economic means to take back the Panama Canal, which the United States gave to Panama in 1999.
“We did agree that something needs to be done with the Panama Canal,” Ruffin told Forbes. “I can’t imagine us giving away that canal for $1, as President Carter did. It is critical.”
