Vici Properties Is Standing By to Build a Las Vegas NBA Arena

Vici Properties executives during a Thursday morning earnings call teased the possibility of building a National Basketball Association (NBA) arena complex on land the company owns in Las Vegas.

In addition to being the largest owner on the Las Vegas Strip with properties including the Venetian, Mandalay Bay, the MGM Grand and Caesars Palace, the Manhattan-based Vici also controls several dozen undeveloped acres behind the Planet Hollywood, Paris and Horseshoe casinos.

The NBA toward the start of 2026 began formally reviewing the possibility of adding a Las Vegas franchise. The move highlighted what Vici President and Chief Operating Officer John Payne noted on the earnings call was the “massive growth in pro sports” in Las Vegas. Major League Baseball’s Oakland A’s are relocating to Las Vegas, and the city in the past 10 years has added National Football League, National Hockey League and Women’s National Basketball Association teams.

NBA expansion plans

Nothing is finalized regarding developing an NBA arena complex, despite weeks of media speculation. Executives on the second-quarter earnings call did not discuss any moves in depth.

The addition of such a complex, though, would fit into the strategy of a company that bills itself as an “experiential real estate investment trust.” Its 103-property portfolio inside and outside of Las Vegas is capitalizing on a particularly robust era for experiential retail.

The market for experiential retail globally is expected to more than quadruple from the $132 billion it stood at toward the start of 2026, according to market research firm Metatech Insights. Heck, one of the fastest-growing commercial real estate asset classes in the U.S. and Canada is trampoline parks. (Ed Pitoniak, Vici’s CEO, told Commercial Observer in April 2025 that when he mastered the experiential retail approach, “I tell people I died and went to business heaven.”)

Financial performance

Vici’s second-quarter numbers reflected the boom times. It reported $1.1 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2026, up 5.7 percent annually. Revenue was also up on the half-year, the company said: $2.07 billion for the first six months of 2026 versus $1.99 billion during the same period in 2025.

Adjusted funds from operations (AFFO), a key profitability measure for real estate investment trusts (REITs), increased 7.8 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, to $679 million. On a per-share basis, AFFO was up 4.6 percent annually, to 62 cents.

The REIT updated its previous AFFO guidance for 2026 from between $2.665 billion and $2.695 billion to between $2.675 billion and $2.695 billion and from $2.44 to $2.47 per share to between $2.45 and $2.47.

The company did suffer a 39.1 percent annual decline in net income for the quarter to $526.5 million. It cited Current Expected Credit Loss — a forecast of possible market conditions, or tenant or borrower circumstances — for the decline.

Executives also touted the $20.3 million acquisition with Club Med of the Carambola Beach Resort in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The deal closed in June. Vici has leased the property back to Club Med, and plans to spend $55.2 million redeveloping it.

Payne said the Carambola will be Vici’s first build-to-suit project and represents its first property acquisition in the Caribbean.