Showcase Mall owners buy another Las Vegas Strip property

Owners of Showcase Mall have made another pricey retail purchase on the Strip.

Jordache jeans founders the Nakash family and New York investment firm Gindi Capital bought the Smith & Wollensky building for $59.5 million.

The sale, by New York’s Spectrum Group Management, closed May 3, property records show.

The deal lets Showcase’s owners expand their holdings on Las Vegas Boulevard — the building is next to the mall — and marks another lucrative bet on the resort corridor’s retail sector.

Jonathan Bennett, managing director of Nakash Holdings, confirmed that Gindi acquired majority ownership of the three-story building at 3767 Las Vegas Blvd. South but said the buyers would jointly manage it.

He also said the new landlords plan “to bring in some really fantastic tenants” but added he couldn’t provide names yet.

The building has some ground-floor tenants, though its primary occupant is Smith & Wollensky, which is moving out.

The steakhouse chain said in late March that it would relocate in early June. It then announced May 4 — the day after the building sold — that it would leave on May 27, saying details for the new location would be announced in coming months.

“Please think of this as a brief hiatus while we create our new home for you to enjoy,” President and CEO Michael Feighery said in the announcement.

Neither Spectrum nor Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group responded to requests for comment.

Showcase is on Las Vegas Boulevard just north of Tropicana Avenue, with a facade featuring a giant Coca-Cola bottle and M&M’s. The Nakash family — whose Jordache Enterprises conglomerate includes clothing, agriculture and aviation investments — bought the property in phases in 2014 and 2015 with Gindi for about $367 million total, county records show. At least one other investor, New York home-curtains maker Elyahu Cohen, joined them in buying a portion of the mall.

They’re not the only investors to buy an enclosed shopping hub on Las Vegas Boulevard in the past few years — and some paid a lot more.

Investors bought The Shops at Crystals for $1.1 billion in April 2016. A few months later, investors acquired a 50 percent stake in Fashion Show for $1.25 billion. Buyers also scooped up the Miracle Mile Shops in October for a reported $1.1 billion.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.