Executive Marc Falcone to leave Station Casinos

A top executive at Station Casinos will resign his position but continue to serve as a consultant.

Marc Falcone, executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer of parent company Red Rock Resorts Inc. and Station, will leave the company Wednesday, according to a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Falcone has been replaced by Stephen Cootey, Station’s executive vice president and chief administrative officer, who joined the company in March. Cootey, 48, is a former Wynn Resorts Ltd. and Las Vegas Sands Corp. executive. His appointment to Falcone’s position was effective May 24.

Falcone will continue to work with Station as a consultant and receive his base salary of $50,000 a month and insurance benefits for a year.

According to the SEC filing, Cootey served as the chief financial officer of Wynn Resorts from May 2014 to March, its treasurer from February 2014 to March and its senior vice president from January 2014 to May 2014.

He served as senior vice president of corporate finance at Las Vegas Sands from March 2012 to December 2013 and its vice president of corporate finance from October 2009 to March 2012.

The filing said from June 2004 to October 2009, he was a partner and senior research analyst of Prides Capital LLC. He served as vice president of Credit Suisse First Boston from 2001 to 2004.

Station officials had no additional comments on the change.

In a report to investors, Joseph Greff of New York-based J.P. Morgan said while analysts didn’t see the switch coming, they weren’t surprised by it because of Red Rock’s mixed earnings results since the company’s initial public offering and a less-than-clear positioning of the recently acquired Palms. He said analysts are comfortable with Cootey’s appointment.

“We are comfortable with Steve taking over from Marc, and know Steve well from his days as CFO of Wynn Resorts and his prior senior finance functions at Las Vegas Sands,” Greff said in his report.

“We don’t think this change signals an increase in the company’s earnings risk profile and note the departure appears to be amicable since the outgoing CFO is consulting for a period of 12 months.

“We expect (Red Rock) to host an investor event later this year at which point (the company) will profile its growth and development prospects, including what specifically it plans to do at the Palms,” he said.

The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.