fertitta new yacht

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Tilman Fertitta's 252-foot, $150 million superyacht Boardwalk courses through canals after departing Feadship's Aalsmeer shipyard in The Netherlands on its way to sea trials. (Photo courtesy of Feadship)

Tilman Fertitta's Boardwalk by Feadship encountered 19 locks and bridges on its way to sea trials. (Photo courtesy of Feadship)

Momus Queen Blayne Fertitta and Tilman Fertitta in 2019 partying port side of his first Boardwalk yacht during The San Luis Salute in Galveston. (Gary Fountain Photo)

The Feadship team moves Tilman Fertitta's super yatch, Boardwalk, through the narrow canals of The Netherlands on its way to sea trials. (Photo courtesy of Feadship)

An areal view of Tilman Fertitta's Feadship Boardwalk of which he is expected to take possession in April. (Photo courtesy of Feadship)

Tilman Fertitta's super yacht, Boardwalk, by Feadship makes a beautiful departure as it heads for sea trials.

Tilman Fertitt's 77-meter Boardwalk from Feadship passes the last bridge on the to sea trials, passing the city of Rotterdam. (Photo courtesy of Feadship)⁠⠀

Tilman Fertitta Gets a New $150 Million Super Yacht — Take a Look at the Floating Paradise

Houston billionaire adds boardwalk to his empire.

I n the stratospheric world of billionaire Tilman Fertitta, more is more. And bigger is better. Consider the hospitality mogul’s ever-expanding business empire and then add his newest toy —  a superyacht set to splash through the waters of the Med in April.

Our curiosity was piqued when we saw info on a 77 meter (252 foot) Feadship yacht that “was commissioned by an experienced yachtsman, the project has been designed by De Voogt Naval Architects,” according to Boat International . The extraordinary yacht’s launch has additionally captured the attention of Super Yacht Times , Mega Yacht News , and  Yacht Harbor .

The name of the floating behemoth: Boardwalk . The same name as Fertitta’s 50 meter (163 feet) Westport motor yacht that has ridden the Fertitta family across waves of the Mediterranean and the Caribbean for a decade.

A little more research reveals that indeed the new vessel, which is headed this month for sea trials, was commissioned by Fertitta in 2016. Four years is fairly standard for yacht construction from the hull up. It was launched from the Feadship’s Aalsmeer shipyard in The Netherlands and in early January.

With an estimated price tag of $150 million, the yacht has seven staterooms, a swimming pool, and, of course, a helipad accommodating Fertitta’s favored mode of travel.

The original Boardwalk remains in Fertitta’s possession and there is no indication that he will sell or charter it. As he has often said, he has no intention of letting anyone but family rest their heads on Boardwalk pillows. We would guess that deep-pocketed Fertitta will keep the smaller yacht in the Caribbean where the larger yacht would have difficulty maneuvering through the waters there.

Outdoor Dining with Bering's

In the world of superyachts , Boardwalk is a serious contender but falls short of the ridiculously huge mega yachts such as Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ Bravo Eugenia, which measures 356 feet, or the 351-foot Benetti Lana, which charters for $1.9 million a week.

Get a closer look at Tilman Fertitta’s new yacht in this video:

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Boat of the Week: Meet ‘Boardwalk,’ Houston Rockets Owner Tilman Fertitta’s Showstopping 252-Foot Superyacht

This vessel has a long, instantly recognizable profile. but it's the myriad interior details—and the interplay of light and crystal—that define her., michael verdon, michael verdon's most recent stories, superyacht sales dropped 17% last year. here’s why..

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At the end of February, Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta and his family held an annual Mardi Gras celebration, which they call the San Luis Salute. The event, which included local officials and celebrities, was headlined by the band Maroon 5. But the most visible VIP guest at the gala was Fertitta’s majestic new superyacht, Boardwalk.  

The 252-foot Feadship is indeed a showstopper. It was the largest vessel at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, and hundreds of people walking the docks took selfies against Boardwalk ’s towering stern, with a H130 helicopter perched on the top deck. Fertitta and his family enjoyed the show from the comfort of the yacht—from the main-deck’s rear cockpit lounge to be precise.

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It’s Fertitta’s favorite spot on his new yacht, a sanctuary protected from the wind and sun, but still exposed to the ocean. It’s also a microcosm of Boardwalk ’s very intricate design. The stern has the requisite lounges, bar and large flat-screen television, but that’s where it differs from other yachts. The ceiling has delicate curves, there are many lights embedded into the area above the bar, and the trim on the columns supporting the stern’s overhang is highly stylized.

The abundance of crystal and lighting define Boardwalk ‘s formal dining area.  Courtesy Fertitta Entertainment

“I don’t think any other owner pays as much attention to the details,” Fertitta told Robb Report during a visit to the yacht. “If you look at the bigger yachts, they really don’t vary much with standard features like ceilings and lighting.”

“Tilman came in with all the important details—all the details that really make the difference in this boat,” adds Amy Halffman, who worked closely with Fertitta on the design. “He’s an extreme detail man, down to the quarter of an inch.”

The Houston entrepreneur has made a highly successful career out of paying attention to the details. Named by Forbes as the “World’s Wealthiest Restaurateur,” the chairman of Fertitta Entertainment and chairman of Landry’s has an empire that also includes the Houston Rockets NBA team, multiple restaurants, Bentley and Rolls-Royce dealerships, and five-star hotels.

The contrast of the black stairwell with the white floors is dramatic, nicely offset by the custom stainless-steel inlays along the railings.  Courtesy Fertitta Entertainment

Fertitta’s Post Oak Hotel in Houston, in fact, provided inspiration for Boardwalk . “We spent a lot of time meeting at the hotel,” says Halffman. “He had a lot of input into that design, which is classy and elegant, so we decided to reflect that style on the yacht.”

This Feadship is actually Halffman’s fifth yacht project with Fertitta, the other four Boardwalks being a succession of ever-larger Westports, the most recent being 165 feet in length. After owning it for 12 years, “it felt like time for a larger project,” says Fertitta. “One that was more complex and elaborate.”

While upsizing by almost 100 feet sounds like a simple hull stretch, the Feadship has 1,848 gross tonnes of interior volume, compared to 492 on the last Westport—in other words, the latest Boardwalk has nearly four times as much interior as the last one. That makes not only for a very complicated build—something which bespoke builder Feadship is used to—but also a new mindset for the interior design, which the design team needed to wrap their heads around.

A more relaxed vibe in the owner’s office.  Courtesy Fertitta Entertainment

Halffman and design partner Frank Woll came up with the concept about four years ago, and then worked closely with the owner on the yacht’s many features. There are hundreds of features, seen and unseen, that distinguish the interior.

The most noticeable—arresting, in fact—is a whimsical, fantasy-like sculpture of a bronze female form with a dress of flowing crystals, diamonds and pearls. The work by Estella Fransbergen is strategically placed in the main entry. “She’s like a guardian angel,” says the sculptor, noting it took nearly two years to complete. “She was originally going to be placed by the staircase, but we moved her so she greets everyone.”

“I’d seen Estella’s work years ago and admired it,” says Halffman. “The torso of the woman’s body appealed to everyone and proved to be a launchpad for me. It played off all the other features.” They include an enormous crystal in the main foyer, pendant chandeliers in the formal dining area beside a case with crystal wear, and bespoke crystal light fixtures on the nearby stairway—which also has a beautiful stainless railing that resembles a feature from the last Boardwalk , but on a much grander scale.

The main salon, with detailed lighting overhead. Notice the backlighting on the rear bar.  Courtesy Fertitta Entertainment

The designers looked for striking but elegant stones—a white opal for the salon and an onice grigio for the sky lounge—mixed with Sapele, mahogany and other dark-stained woods that show contrast with the light-colored fabrics and tiling. The wine cellar even has a custom stainless-steel design that gives it a distinctive look. In all, 55 stones, marbles and tiles were used across the yacht.

Of course, all these stunning details were made possible by the ubiquitous placement of lighting, both direct and indirect, something that Fertitta understands with almost a scientific precision. His previous Westport had four times more lights than the yard had ever put on the 164-foot series. This Feadship paid even more attention to the lighting. Even the beach club, with its lounge and dedicated dive and watersports locker, has a stylish, deliberate look. The bar has a light fixture comprised of Swarovski crystals.

The yacht, though immense, is easy to navigate. Fertitta and longtime captain Tristan Judson paid attention to the functional aspects, creating an open foredeck where the two Hogdon-built tenders are stored, adding the ability to use the massive area for social occasions. The sundeck has a mosaic-tiled swimming pool, and above that is an observation deck with a mast. On that level, one gets a sense of how large Boardwalk really is, surrounded by smaller superyachts at the Fort Lauderdale show.

The intricate details on the day head—typically a forgotten space—give a sense of the how the design team approached the interior.  Courtesy Fertitta Entertainment

Still, the owner and his designers managed to keep a sense of intimacy throughout, installing what they call a “country kitchen” as the owner’s galley, to allow more informal meals and socializing than the main dining room, while retaining the yacht’s professional galley for the staff on another deck. Fertitta, who often works on board, has an office dressed with light-colored fabrics, lounges and glass doors to access the exterior decks.

The Feadship may not be Fertitta’s last yacht. Rumor has it that he’s talking to European yards about an even larger Boardwalk . When asked about it, he says simply: “I love to build things.”

Some other angles.

Courtesy Fertitta Entertainment

Courtesy Boardwalk

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Cool Spaces: Step aboard Tilman Fertitta's luxury mega-yacht

At 164-feet long, 31-feet wide and almost 500 tons, this is no ordinary yacht. Welcome aboard "The Boardwalk", Houston businessman Tilman Fertitta's luxury ocean vessel and favorite toy.

The $40 million yacht has 12 bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, grand salons, and a true chef's kitchen with steamers, warming drawers, and walk-in fridge and freezer.

The master suite features an owner's office, opulent bedroom with space to spare, and a gorgeous bathroom.

No expense was spared on the outdoor space either. "The Boardwalk" boasts multiple decks, lounges, scooters for land excursions, and even a helicopter pad.

Fertitta, his family and crew travel the world on the yacht. Some of his favorite stops are the Bahamas and the Mediterranean.

"It's one of those things I always wanted and I'll always have. It isn't cheap, I can tell you that," Fertitta said with a smile. "But every time I walk on it, I tell myself, 'God, I love this boat.'"

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Tilman Fertitta debuts new $150 million mega-yacht in Galveston

The Mardi Gras floats may be put away until 2023, but Tilman Fertitta's new mega-yacht, "Boardwalk," will probably be afloat indefinitely.

Fertitta introduced the 252-foot floating palace last week in Galveston during his family's annual Mardi Gras bash, the San Luis Salute.

Photo : Creative Commons

Actually, this is the second "Boardwalk." It replaces an apparently used-up and obviously inferior 153-foot model.

Designed by De Voogt Naval Architects for about $150 million, the new-and-improved boat has 12 bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, a genuine chef's kitchen, a swimming pool, and a helipad.

Don't forget the wine room, crystal chandeliers and a 16-seat dining table. And since it has three levels, it comes with a handy elevator.

The family will apparently hold on to the original "Boardwalk," presumably for navigating waters that won't accommodate the larger craft. Or perhaps for hosting B-List celebs.

Fertitta, CEO and owner of Landry's Inc., also owns the Houston Rockets.

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🔒insiders: go inside tilman fertitta’s ultra-luxe yacht, a ‘mansion on the water’.

Amanda Cochran , Digital Special Projects Manager

HOUSTON – Houston billionaire and Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta showed KPRC 2 inside his luxurious new yacht he docked in Galveston around Mardi Gras.

This is Fertitta’s sixth yacht. The owner of the restaurant giant Landry’s, Inc. and Golden Nugget Casinos told KPRC 2′s Frank Billingsley he played an integral part in designing “the boat” -- the term he prefers for the massive yacht he has dubbed The Boardwalk. The yacht, he explained, was ordered several years ago and took two-and-a-half years to build. It was finished during the pandemic.

Fertitta said in addition to a pool, luxury accommodations, bars on each level and water sport vehicles, the yacht has a full office with full communications around the world.

In addition to docking in Galveston, Fertitta said in the next few years he plans to enjoy “the boat” around the world, with plans to dock in places like the Bahamas, Mexico, Greece, Croatia and more.

Watch more with Fertitta and Billingsley in the video above.

You can also take a detailed look inside the massive yacht below and learn more about how the yacht is manned with the yacht captain in the second video below.

Copyright 2022 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.

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How Clever Deals Made Houston Rockets Owner Tilman Fertitta Billions Richer During The Pandemic

When covid lockdowns hit, tilman fertitta’s restaurants and casinos took a serious hit, and he had to lay off 40,000 workers. but now, the golden nugget casino owner is richer than ever thanks to seismic market shifts and his own ambitious spac strategy. .

e are expecting you—may I take your shoes?” says the uniformed crew member stationed at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the main deck of Tilman Fertitta’s new 252-foot yacht, Boardwalk. The shoe policy is understandable. Fertitta lavished $150 million and nearly five years on this vessel, spending days with Dutch shipbuilder Feadship imposing his obsessive vision for six decks of plush carpets, marble surfaces, chromed fixtures and automatic sliding doors. There are cabins to sleep 22 crew and 14 guests, who often arrive via a de rigueur helipad. Fertitta’s favorite spot is the top deck, 74 feet above the sea and overlooking the hot tub. His fifth yacht, Boardwalk dwarfs the other ships docked at the Atlantis resort at Paradise Island, Bahamas. He still owns No. 4 , a 164-footer anchored in his hometown of Galveston, Texas. Asked if he ever rents out his yachts to defray costs, he summarily dismisses the question. “If you need to charter, you shouldn’t own it.” 

You can describe the 64-year-old yacht, restaurant, casino and hotel owner in many ways: as a showman, risk taker, college dropout, detail guy, NBA owner (the Houston Rockets), reality show star (three seasons of Billion Dollar Buyer on CNBC) and the fellow who bought Donald Trump’s casino in Atlantic City out of bankruptcy in 2011 and made a success of it. But the one identity that has arguably made the biggest impact on his wealth is that of a sharp financial engineer with a history of cutting the public into and out of his ventures and taking on and offloading debt at opportune moments. 

“We always get bigger and stronger during tough times,” Fertitta says. In the 2001 downturn, he gobbled up troubled restaurant chains at a discount. In 2010, in the wake of the Great Recession, he took Landry’s Inc. private, buying the 45% he didn’t own for $1.4 billion in cash after it had spent 17 years as a public company. 

Fertitta expects to spend a month out of the year on the 252-foot “Boardwalk,” his fifth yacht, docked here at Paradise Island, Bahamas.

This time around, Fertitta could have ended up going broke under $4.6 billion in debt accumulated to build his empire. Instead, he’s getting richer by making use of the era’s hottest financial trend: the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Thanks to creative SPAC financing and what appears to be some serious self-dealing, Fertitta has already increased his net worth, Forbes estimates, from $4.1 billion a year ago to $6.3 billion today. In December, Fertitta hopes to close on his fifth SPAC deal, the biggest transaction of his career, in which he will offload most of Landry’s holdings, including five Golden Nugget casinos and more than 500 restaurants (and billions in debt), to the rechristened Fertitta Entertainment. If all goes as planned, he’ll end up with a 74% stake, worth some $4 billion, in the new public company and a personal net worth topping $8 billion. (Landry’s restaurant brands include Bubba Gump, McCormick & Schmick’s, the Palm and the Rainforest Cafe.) 

SPACs, of course, are publicly traded shell companies that raise money to facilitate a future merger with an unnamed private company that might not have the heft or the patience to do a traditional initial public offering, with all the federal scrutiny that entails. SPACs have boomed the last two years thanks in no small part to all the cheap money the Federal Reserve has pumped into the economy. From just 59 deals raising $14 billion in 2019, SPAC offerings surged to 248 raising $83 billion in 2020 and 443 raising $127 billion in the first nine months of 2021, according to SPAC Analytics. 

Others have done more SPAC deals than Fertitta. Billionaire venture capitalist (and bitcoin enthusiast) Chamath Palihapitiya has launched six SPACs, using them to take public the likes of Opendoor, Virgin Galactic and Clover Health. And others have gotten richer (at least momentarily). United Wholesale Mortgage CEO Mat Ishbia is now worth around $8 billion (down from almost $13 billion since January) after his family-owned company went public through a merger with a SPAC sponsored by billionaire investor Alec Gores, who has done eight such deals. 

There’s a lot to question about the SPAC boom, including seemingly guaranteed profits for sponsors and hedge funds. If Gores and Palihapitiya are the most active, Fertitta may be the most aggressive, resorting to brazen maneuvering of which few large investment firms would approve. 

In one notable case, he stood on both sides of a crucial deal for Golden Nugget Online Gaming. In 2019, before the pandemic, Fertitta and his longtime bankers, Jefferies Financial Group, raised $250 million for a SPAC (Landcadia Holdings II) with the stated aim of acquiring an entertainment company. Fertitta got a 10% promoter’s stake, plus the titles of co-chairman and CEO. 

In March 2020, when Covid-19 lockdowns began, Fertitta shuttered nearly all his operations and laid off 40,000 workers. He received $160 million in forgivable federal paycheck protection program loans—but gave it all back to Uncle Sam after public outrage over big operators getting cash intended to help small businesses. 

“If anybody wants to question that deal, it’s the greatest in the world. I already sold it once. Now I’m selling it again.” 

Instead, that April, he drew an emergency $300 million loan at a rate of nearly 13% against his Golden Nugget Online Gaming division (GNOG), which had become a pandemic bright spot, with people stuck at home gambling their federal stimulus money. The loan was liquidity insurance, he says: “I didn’t spend any of it.” 

Two months later, in June 2020, Landcadia II announced it had found its acquisition target—none other than Fertitta’s own online gaming division, the one with that pricey loan. When his SPAC closed on the purchase of GNOG in December 2020 for $745 million (six times revenues), Fertitta ended up with 49% of GNOG’s shares and a $30 million cash payment. He was also rid of the obligation to pay back that emergency debt—and able to keep the borrowed $300 million. 

“These sorts of maneuvers ensure that sponsors win regardless of the performance of the merged company,” scolded four Democratic U.S. Senators, including Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Warren, in letters they wrote to Fertitta and five other SPAC kings in September 2021, asking them to account for seeming conflicts of interest and urging the SEC to take a closer look. Michael Ohlrogge, a law and corporate governance professor at New York University, says there have been only about a dozen cases in the last few years in which SPAC sponsors bought affiliated companies, and for good reason: “Whenever the buyer and the seller are the same party, you have to wonder if the price is going to be fair.” 

Not that GNOG investors are complaining. This past August, Fertitta reached a deal to sell GNOG to DraftKings (itself born of a SPAC) for $1.5 billion in stock. “If anybody wants to question that deal, it’s the greatest in the world,” he crows. “I already sold it once. Now I’m selling it again.” 

“Whatever you do, don’t say I got my start peeling shrimp,’’ Fertitta implores during a marathon eight-hour-plus interview that includes dinner at Nassau’s famed Graycliff restaurant, where the bill for four runs to $1,500. It ends after 2 a.m. with Fertitta, his 27-year-old son, Patrick, and a Forbes reporter lounging on a platform that folds out from the hull of Boardwalk, watching spotted manta rays swimming below. 

THE SPAC ROLLER COASTER 

Special purpose acquisition companies now account for more than half of all cash raised in u.s. initial public offerings. in 2016, when tilman fertitta launched his first spac, landcadia holdings i, such deals made up just 14% of the ipo market. it was a flop. his second, landcadia holdings ii, is faring far better, despite criticism that he used it to buy his own online gambling division. .

But Fertitta’s restaurant and entertainment roots are as much a part of his colorful backstory as his financial acrobatics. His grandfather Vic Fertitta and great-uncles Salvatore and Rosario Maceo ran the Balinese Room in Galveston, a nightclub that featured entertainers like Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope. (The Maceos, immigrants from Italy, allegedly ran gambling and bootlegging in Galveston.) His father, also named Vic, owned the Galveston seafood joint Pier 23—where, yes, young Tilman indeed shucked shrimp and by age 14 was managing the restaurant, learning the business hands-on. 

He tried not to be in restaurants. In the late 1970s, after dropping out of the University of Houston, Fertitta launched a women’s clothing shop, stores that sold vitamins, an arcade game distributor and a construction company. In 1985, at 28, he opened the 160-room Key Largo Hotel in Galveston. He showed up at his high school reunion in a limo (“I owned it”). Soon he sold the Key Largo for $600,000 to his cousin Frank Fertitta (who, with brother Lorenzo, later became billionaires from casinos and mixed martial-arts promoter UFC, which they sold in 2016). 

Tilman used that cash to help him buy Houston eateries Landry’s Seafood Inn & Oyster Bar and Willie G’s from the Landry brothers and expanded to Galveston, Corpus Christi and San Antonio. He got overleveraged with $10 million in debt, but “outlasted the banks” after the 1987 downturn and paid off his loans for $2 million. In the late 1980s, he started buying up restaurants on the marina boardwalk in Kemah, on Galveston Bay. In time he erected a Ferris wheel and turned 40 waterfront acres into his first “eatertainment” district, with Joe’s Crab Shack, Saltgrass Steak House and more. 

By 1993 Fertitta was generating $2.7 million in profits on $34 million in revenue and raised $24 million in Landry’s first IPO. To save pennies he cut the size of french-fry orders and put out fewer lemon wedges. “Among Tilman’s superpowers are that he understands the numbers behind the numbers, what they pay for beef and beverage,” says Richard Handler, CEO of Jefferies Financial Group. 

In 2000, Fertitta offered $125 million for the jungle-themed Rainforest Cafe chain. Rebuffed, he snapped it up later that year for just $75 million when the economy hit a rough patch. In a 2010 book, Rainforest founder Steve Schussler described Fertitta as a “brash, arrogant, bargain-basement, bottom-feeding acquisition nemesis.” Schussler was miffed when Fertitta decided to save $100,000 per location per year by getting rid of live bird displays. Reached at his restaurant laboratory in Golden Valley, Minnesota, Schussler recants his previous description, saying he now believes a Fertitta-style numbers obsession might have enabled Rainforest to survive independently. “If it meant the Audubon Society came in and bought margaritas, he’d have twice as many birds,’’ he says of Fertitta. (The two have since collaborated to create the T-Rex Cafe near Orlando, Florida, which features animatronic dinosaurs.) 

In 2011, Tilman Fertitta bought the run-down Trump Marina casino in Atlantic City for $38 million, renamed it the Golden Nugget and put $150 million into renovations. Gaming revenue is up 50% from a year ago.

In 2005, Fertitta bought the two Golden Nugget casinos, in Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nevada, for $295 million. He swapped out old restaurants for his hottest chains, then added three more casinos in Biloxi, Mississippi, Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Atlantic City, where he picked up the run-down Trump Marina casino resort for $38 million. 

Billionaire Steve Wynn, who made his first fortune expanding the original Vegas Golden Nugget casino in the 1970s, says that while he had always tried to “steal the top end” (i.e., the highest-rolling Asian baccarat players), his friend “Tilly” makes sure he has something to appeal to gamblers at every level. To Fertitta, it’s all about numbers. “What’s more valuable to a casino, one $1 million player or ten $100,000 players?” asks Gerry Del Prete, who runs Golden Nugget’s gaming operations. The answer, he explains, is the ten relative minnows, because you can make as much money off them, with less volatility, while providing fewer expensive perks. 

Still, Fertitta does like doing business with other rich folks. His Post Oak Hotel and Spa in Houston, opened in 2018, features a Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Bugatti dealership, which he owns, in the lobby. Celebrities and athletes pay $600 and up per night to see and be seen at its pools and Mastro’s Steakhouse. His son Patrick pulls up on his phone the new song “N 2 Deep” by Drake, which features lyrics about a woman he calls “a little Post Oak baby.” In September Drake tweeted a clip of himself shooting hoops at the Post Oak’s penthouse court. 

Fertitta says he has spent $400 million on the hotel and adjacent office building. In August he invited Forbes to his headquarters to argue for boosting our estimate of his net worth. For his biggest trophy, Fertitta in 2017 finally bought the NBA’s Rockets (he first acquired a 3% stake in 1983) for a then-record $2.2 billion, raising funds by borrowing against Landry’s. 

With Landry’s leveraged to the hilt, the pandemic hit. “For four weeks you were just scared to death,” Fertitta recalls. “You can’t save the world, so you’ve got to make tough decisions”—like laying off 40,000 workers. (He says he has since refilled all but 3,000 positions.) “I caught so much shit for it because I was the first one who did it,” he says. Not that he second-guesses himself. “You’ve got to remember, it’s all my money. At other companies CEOs are not so quick, because it’s not theirs.” 

With his operations all but shut down, Fertitta was surprised to see a bright spot emerge in his eight-year-old Golden Nugget Online Gaming division. With revenue of $1.7 billion in the first half of 2021, America’s online gambling industry has already surpassed its record 2020, boosting the value of Fertitta’s stake in GNOG to $600 million. But Fertitta will be just as happy to let DraftKings run that business day-to-day. DraftKings generated $600 million in revenue in the first six months of the year but spent so much building market share that it posted a $650 million net loss. “It’s against everything that I do. Everything, to me, has to make money,” Fertitta says. “Let them run the company; let them fund the losses.” 

There have been only about a dozen cases the last few years where SPAC sponsors bought affiliated companies—and for good reason: “Whenever the buyer and the seller are the same party, you have to wonder if the price is going to be fair.” 

It gets better. Before the pandemic, Fertitta had been working on a preliminary prospectus to take Landry’s public. Instead, a deal came to him via Fast Acquisition, a SPAC launched in 2020 by marketing guru Doug Jacob (who sold his agency Jwalk to Shiseido Americas in 2017) and Sandy Beall, founder of the Ruby Tuesday chain. They agreed to sweeten the pot for Fertitta and reduce their promoter’s shares by 40%, Jacob says, in order “to do a once-in-a-lifetime deal with one of the best operators of all time.” In February they announced a $6.6 billion deal to merge most of Fertitta’s restaurants, the five casinos and his stake in GNOG/DraftKings into Fast, creating a new public company to be called Fertitta Entertainment. In June, Fertitta announced that he would expand the deal, adding assets like the Kemah boardwalk district, Galveston Pleasure Pier, Denver Aquarium and more restaurants. This boosted the headline number to $8.6 billion. Piling in more assets also helps soften the balance-sheet impact of the billions in debt he’ll push over to the new company, reducing leverage from 5.2 times Ebitda to a still-hefty 4.3. He’ll have a 74% equity stake and the CEO job. 

Fertitta will hold on to select restaurants, hotels including the Post Oak and, of course, the Rockets ( Forbes values the team at $2.5 billion). But the new public company will be his growth platform; he wants a property on the Las Vegas Strip. 

What could go wrong? Well, resurgent Covid-19 could hit travel and restaurants. A stock market slump could sour investors. And his overall leverage still runs high, especially for a hodgepodge of restaurants and casinos. Moreover, shares in the average SPAC have lost money after a year, and some are ending up in litigation. That’s the fate of Waitr, the Louisiana-based food delivery service that Fertitta and Jefferies acquired in 2018 via their first SPAC, Landcadia I, which raised $250 million. Waitr shares have lost 90% of their value, and class-action plaintiffs accuse him of making false statements pertaining to Waitr’s “huge potential” in taking on the likes of DoorDash and Grubhub, and their “highly complementary” nature with his other businesses. His attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss the case as lacking any actual claims of fraud and say the talk was merely “corporate optimism and puffery.” A decision on the motion is pending. 

But for now, life is good. Fertitta intends to spend 30 nights a year on Boardwalk. This summer he had his ex-wife, Paige, and their four kids there for a week. Their 2017 split was amicable. He has been married for two years to Lauren Ware, formerly a litigation counsel for Landry’s. 

Fertitta acknowledges it’s a complicated time to be so flashy. “The world has changed. People hate billionaires,’’ he laments, especially those who have become so much richer during the pandemic. “Go look at social media—I never posted one thing about the new boat. As public as I am, I’m also very private,” he says. You’ll never see selfies from his yacht on Instagram. “And remember, it was [ Forbes ] who asked me” for a tour of Boardwalk. Yes, and thank you for the hospitality. Fertitta has already started imagining his next yacht, perhaps a 361-footer by German shipbuilder Lürssen.  

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Pitch & Fiddle looking to fall opening in Fair Oaks

The new Pitch & Fiddle façade will be similar to the Sacramento location at 8704 La Riviera Drive near Watt Avenue. Photo by Thomas J. Sullivan

“We’re now looking to a late October opening if everything goes well”

FAIR OAKS, CA (MPG) - Business partners of a popular Sacramento Irish pub Pitch & Fiddle, both of whom are Bella Vista High school grads, are looking forward to opening their new restaurant at 8525 Madison Avenue, Suite 126 in the Fair Oaks Pointe Shopping Center in Fair Oaks this fall.

Kyle Schubert, a co-partner in the venture had signed the lease with the broker, Ethan Conrad Properties, Inc. of Sacramento, to the 3,607-square-foot space over a year and a half ago.

Fair Oaks Pointe is located at the corner of Madison and Kenneth Avenues in Fair Oaks. Adjacent tenants in the recently remodeled plaza include Fidelity National Title, Coldwell Banker, Excel Fitness and Kaia Fit.

Schubert said by phone the start of construction was delayed by multiple factors, including the pandemic and the necessary administrative time to review and then issue building permits from the city of Fair Oaks and Sacramento County.

“We’re done with the necessary permitting and have selected a contractor,” he said.

Schubert said the planned themed lunch and dinner menu and interior décor of the new Pitch & Fiddle Irish American pub restaurant in Fair Oaks will be similar to its restaurant at 8704 La Riviera Drive near Watt Avenue, open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The business name “Pitch” comes from the field which soccer and rugby is played on and “Fiddle” is a classic Irish musical instrument.

Pitch & Fiddle’s Sacramento restaurant offers a variety of combination of big and small plates served pub style. In addition to appetizers, popular dishes include half-pound hamburgers served with Fiddle fries, chicken sandwiches, wings, Irish corned beef tacos, sliders, Dublin fish and chips and a “Fiddle-delphia” cheese steak served on a French-style roll.

An Irish inspired grilled cheese sandwich featuring melted Swiss and cheddar cheese with a choice of bacon or corned beef on sourdough bread. Other fare includes a “Lonely Shepherd’s” pie, home style macaroni and cheese, linguini, buffalo chicken and Caesar salads.

Pitch and Fiddle’s new Fair Oaks restaurant will be open to all ages and operate under a California type 47 liquor license from the California Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) as an on-sale general restaurant license, Schubert said.

Once open, Schubert said he looks forward to becoming an active supporter of sports teams in Fair Oaks including Bella Vista High School where he graduated from, and the surrounding Fair Oaks area.

“We’re now looking to a late October opening if everything goes well,” Schubert said.

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