Sunland Park sold to casino operator

Sunland Park, the New Mexico racetrack and casino that sits on the western edge of El Paso, Texas, has been sold to Strategic Gaming Management, a casino operator with properties in Nevada and South Dakota.

The sale of the track, which annually runs a mixed meet of around 55 days each year from January to early April, was approved at a Sept. 30 meeting of the New Mexico Racing Commission, effective Oct. 15, according to Ismael Trejo, the executive director of the commission.

According to a release from Strategic Management, which is headed by Jon Grant Lincoln, the sale price was $301 million. As part of the deal, Strategic Management sold the real-estate assets for $183.7 million to Gaming and Leisure Properties, a real-estate investment trust spun off from Penn National Gaming. The real estate is being leased back to Strategic Management.

Sunland Park has been owned by the family of the late Stan Fulton since Fulton died in 2018. The track and casino sit on 157 acres of land on the west side of El Paso.

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Fred Heinrich, who has been Sunland’s general counsel and compliance officer for 10 years, will be made president of Sunland Park and will oversee its operations, Strategic Management said. The track’s existing management team will remain in place.

Sunland has a one-mile dirt track and a 733-seat grandstand. Its richest race is the Grade 3, $400,000 Sunland Derby, which awards the winner with 20 points toward a berth in the Kentucky Derby as part of the Road to the Derby series. The Sunland Derby card awards a total of $1 million in both Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse purses.

The 25,000 square-foot casino at Sunland has 738 slot machines and 12 electronic gambling tables. Revenues from the casino games subsidize racing purses.

Sale-leaseback transactions like the one struck between Strategic Gaming and GLPI hold tax advantages for both sides. The structure of the arrangement also allowed Strategic Gaming to raise cash to partially fund the transaction.

Under the deal, Strategic Gaming will lease Sunland for $15 million a year, with lease payments increasing by 2 percent a year. The deal also included a sale-leaseback for two South Dakota hotel-casinos owned by Strategic Gaming.

– Additional reporting by Mary Rampellini

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