The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians currently owns and operates the San Manuel Casino in Highland, California, east of San Bernardino. Station Casinos kept three other resorts - Texas Station, Fiesta Henderson, and Fiesta Rancho - closed until tourism returns. Station Casinos bought the resort, originally developed by the Maloof family, in 2016 for $312.5 million. The renovations brought new restaurants from celebrity chefs such as Bobby Flay and his seafood restaurant Shark Michael Symon’s Mabel’s BBQ and Sara’s, the speakeasy inside it and the Italian restaurant Vetri Cucina from Philadelphia chef Marc Vetri on the 56th floor of the resort, along with Tim Ho Wan and its menu of Cantonese-style dim sum and Scotch 80 Prime, the steakhouse. The Palms on the west side of the Strip underwent a $690 million renovation that wrapped up more than 10 months before the shutdown. The resort remained closed even after the state allowed casinos to reopen on June 4, 2020. The blockbuster deal comes more than a year after the state shut down all nonessential businesses, including casinos, in March 2020 for 78 days to help stop the spread of COVID 19. The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians plans to purchase the off-Strip Palms from Station Casinos for $650 million in cash.
