WYOMISSING — Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. (GLPI) has completed its previously announced sale leaseback transaction with Bally’s at properties in Rhode Island and Mississippi. The transaction is valued at $635 million.
The Wyomissing-based Gaming and Leisure Properties has added the land and real estate assets of Bally’s Tiverton Casino & Hotel in Tiverton, R.I., and Bally’s Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi in Biloxi, Miss., to its existing master lease with Bally’s.
Bally’s will lease back the properties and continue to operate the facilities.
The master lease will have an initial term of 15 years (with 14 years remaining) followed by four five-year renewals at the tenant’s option, according to a press release. The existing master lease already includes Bally’s Dover Casino Resort, Bally’s Evansville Casino & Hotel, Bally’s Quad Cities Casino & Hotel and Bally’s Black Hawk Casinos.
“We are pleased to grow our master lease with Bally’s with two premier assets and concurrently enter a new state with Rhode Island,” Peter Carlino, GLPI’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
The initial rent for the lease was increased by $48.5 million on an annual basis, subject to contractual escalations based on the consumer price index, the release stated.
In connection with the closing, a $200 million deposit funded by GLPI in September was credited to the company along with a $9 million transaction fee. In addition, concurrent with the transaction’s closing, GLPI will draw upon a previously structured delayed draw term loan for $600 million to credit toward the closing. The amount of draw was influenced by the transaction’s tax structuring for Bally’s benefit.
GLPI continues to have the option to acquire the real property assets of Bally’s Twin River Lincoln Casino Resort in Lincoln, R.I., before Dec, 31, 2024, for a purchase price of $771 million and additional rent of $58.8 million. That addition is subject to receipt by Bally’s of required consents, the company said.
