James Packer in North Strip Land Deal

Australian billionaire James Packer and his Crown Resorts company are looking at the Las Vegas market again. Packer has reportedly bought a piece of a loan attached to land once occupied by the New Frontier.

Crown Resorts has been successful in other markets around the world including Macau, but Las Vegas has not been as kind.

In 2007 Crown was in a partnership to build a super-tall skyscraper resort on the former Wet and Wild site, but FAA concerns and the tanking economy grounded the project.

Crown also had a minority stake in the failed Fontainebleau project. More recently Packer was said to have expressed interest in buying The Cosmopolitan. That hotel was later sold to Blackstone.

Despite the bad luck in Vegas so far, Crown is one of the largest gaming companies in the world. They need to get a piece of the Vegas market, and their success in Macau and elsewhere has put them in a position to expand.

This is more good news for the north Strip. It's becoming pretty apparent that there's going to be a resurgence in the next few years and companies are going to be jockeying for position to get in on the action.