New Frontier Sold in Billion-Dollar Deal!

Another hotel on the Las Vegas Strip has changed hands. An Israeli-owned investment group has reportedly bought the New Frontier hotel for more than $1.2 billion. Current owner Phil Ruffin paid $167 million for the aging resort back in 1998. He had since been looking for an equity partner to renovate the nearly 2800-room hotel and casino before accepting the offer from El Ad Properties. The company owns several New York resorts, including the Plaza hotel. El Ad will reportedly demolish the New Frontier and build a Las Vegas version of the Plaza on the resort's 36-acre site. The deal does not include seven acres where Donald Trump is building his twin-tower International Hotel. The Frontier first opened in 1942, and was once owned by Howard Hughes. Elvis Presley played his first-ever Las Vegas gig there in 1956, and illusionists Siegfried & Roy headlined the resort in the 1980s with their show "Beyond Belief."