Operator
Good afternoon, and welcome to Red Rock Resorts' fourth quarter and full year 2025 conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I would now turn the conference over to Stephen Coote, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer of Red Rock Resorts. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining today for Red Rock Resort's fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. Joining me on the call today are Frank and Lorenzo Pertitta, Scott Krieger, and our executive management team. I'd like to remind everyone that our call today will include forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of the United States federal securities laws. Developments and results may differ from those projected. During this call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures. For definitions and complete reconciliation of these figures to GAAP, please refer to the financial tables in our earnings press release, Form 8-K, and Investor Deck, which were filed this afternoon prior to the call. Also, please note, this call is being recorded. The fourth quarter represented another period of exceptional performance for the company. Our Las Vegas operations set new fourth quarter records for net revenue and adjusted EBITDA while maintaining near-record adjusted EBITDA margin. This marked the ninth consecutive record quarter for both net revenue and adjusted EBITDA. For the full year, our Las Vegas operations delivered their strongest performance on record, achieving all-time highs in net revenue and adjusted EBITDA, including producing more than $900 million in adjusted EBITDA for the first time in our 50-year history while maintaining near-record adjusted EBITDA margin. These results marked the second consecutive year of record net revenue and the fifth consecutive year of record-adjusted EBITDA, underscoring the strength, consistency, and long-term earnings power of our operating platform. In addition to delivering strong financial results in 2025, we remain very pleased with the continued performance of Durango Casino Resort and the successful revenue backflow at our core properties. Durango continues to expand the locals' market and drive incremental play from our existing customer base, reinforcing its position as a meaningful growth driver within our portfolio. On December 15th, we completed our latest expansion to Durango, adding more than 25,000 square feet of new casino space, including what we believe is the premier high-limit slot area in Las Vegas, along with a covered parking garage providing nearly 2,000 additional parking spaces. While still early, customer response has been overwhelmingly positive, and early operational results continue to validate our capital investment into high-limit slot and table areas across our portfolio. Building on the success on January 5th, we broke ground on the next phase of Durango's master plan, further advancing the property's long-term growth strategy. Supported by strong market fundamentals and rapid development of the surrounding area, including more than 6,000 new households within a three-mile radius of the property over the next few years, this phase will expand the podium along the north side of the existing facility by more than 275,000 square feet. The expansion will add nearly 400 additional slot machines and ancillary gaming to the casino floor, while also introducing a range of new amenities designed to drive repeat visitation and broaden customer appeal. These enhancements include a state-of-the-art 36-lane bowling facility, luxury movie theaters, a mix of new restaurant concepts and multiple entertainment venues, highlighted by a partnership with Moonshine Flats, which will bring its signature country western bar and live music concept to Vegas, the first time. Construction is expected to take approximately 18 months to complete. The total project cost is estimated to be approximately $385 million. Upon completion of this expansion, we believe Durango will be better positioned to capture additional market share and drive sustained growth in the local market. Now let's take a look at our fourth quarter and full year results. With respect to our Las Vegas operations, our fourth quarter net revenue was $505 million, up 2.5% from the prior year's fourth quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA was $231 million, up 3.2% from the prior year's fourth quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA margin was 45.8% and increased 32 basis points from the prior year's fourth quarter. On a consolidated basis, our fourth quarter net revenue, which includes $3.7 million from our North Fork project, was $511.8 million, up 3.2% from the prior year's fourth quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA, which also includes $3.7 million from our North Fork project, was $213 million, up 5.4% from the prior year's fourth quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA margin was 41.7% for the quarter, an increase of 84 basis points from the prior year. Let's turn to our full-year performance. With respect to our Las Vegas operations, our full-year net revenue was just under $2 billion, up 2.9 percent from the prior year. Our full-year adjusted EBITDA was $915.9 million, up 4.2 percent from the prior year. Our full-year adjusted EBITDA margin was 46.2 percent, an increase of 56 basis points from the prior year. On a consolidated basis, our full-year net revenue, which includes $17.6 million from our North Fork project, was $2 billion, up 3.7 percent from the prior year. Our full-year adjusted EBITDA, which also includes $17.6 million up from our North Fork project, was $848.6 million, up 6.6 percent from the prior year. Our full-year adjusted EBITDA margin was 42.2%, an increase of 114 basis points in the prior year. In the quarter, we converted 62% of our adjusted EBITDA to operating free cash flow, generating $131.5 million, or $1.25 per share. When looking at our 2025 cumulative free cash flow, we converted 55% of our adjusted EBITDA to operating cash flow, generating $466.3 million, or $4.44 per share. This significant level of free cash flow was strategically deployed to support our long-term growth initiatives, including our most recent projects at Durango, Sunset Station, and Green Valley Ranch. We'll return to our stakeholders through debt reduction, dividends, and share repurchases. In the fourth quarter, remain focused on our core local guests while continuing to grow our regional national customer base across our portfolio. Compared to the fourth quarter last year, we saw continued strength in carted slot play across our database, including our regional and national customers. Robust visitation and net theoretical win across our local database, as well as our regional and national customers, helped drive the highest fourth quarter revenue and profitability in our gaming operations in the company's history. Turning to our non-gaming operations, both hotel and food and beverage delivered another strong quarter, achieving near-record revenue and profitability in the quarter. The hotel operations performed exceptionally well, generating near-record results despite the West and East Towers at Green Valley Ranch being offline for renovation. The food and beverage operations achieved record revenue and near-record profitability for the quarter, supported by higher cover counts across our outlets. In group sales and catering, our teams delivered near record fourth quarter revenue, and if we exclude the lost room nights from our Green Valley Ranch room renovation, we continue to see positive momentum in the first half of 2026. As we start the first quarter, we continue to see stability in our core slot business within the locals market and across our Carter database. While we expect near-term disruption impact from our ongoing construction projects at Durango, Sunset Station, and Green Valley Ranch, We remain as competent as ever in the strength of our business and long-term growth prospects. Now let's cover a few balance sheet and capital items. The company's cash and cash equivalents at the end of the fourth quarter was $142.5 million, and the total principal amount of debt outstanding was $3.4 billion, resulting in net debt of $3.3 billion. As of the end of the fourth quarter, the company's net debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 3.87 times, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of deleveraging, demonstrating both the earnings power of our operating platform and the stability of our balance sheet. During the fourth quarter, we made total distributions of approximately $72.3 million to the LLC unit holders of Station Holco, including a distribution of approximately $42.4 million to Red Rock Resorts. The company used this portion of the distribution to fund its previously declared quarterly dividend of $0.26 per Class A common share and to repurchase almost 880,000 Class A common shares at an average price of $54.67 per share under its previously announced $900 million share repurchase program, reducing total shares outstanding to approximately $104.9 million. When combining the dividends and the share repurchases made throughout the year, we returned approximately $296.9 million to shareholders in 2025, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to disciplined capital allocation and delivering sustainable long-term value to our shareholders. Capital spend in the fourth quarter was $78.9 million, which includes approximately $64.2 million in investment capital, as well as $14.7 million in maintenance capital. For the full year 2025, capital spend was $319 million, which includes approximately $227 million in investment capital, as well as $92 million in maintenance capital, down from our previous guidance, mainly due to the timing of capital expenditures. As we look into our capital spend for 2026, we expect to spend between $375 and $425 million, which includes $275 to $300 million in investment capital, as well as $100 to $125 million in maintenance capital. In addition to our continued investment in our Durango property, we are making significant investments in our Sunset Station and Green Valley Ranch properties. At Sunset Station, we continue to make strong progress on our podium refresh. The $53 million renovation will include an all-new country western bar and nightclub, a new Mexican restaurant, a new center bar, and a fully renovated casino floor. Customer feedback and initial performance from the completed portions of the project have been overwhelmingly positive, reinforcing our confidence in the direction of the renovation and the underlying consumer demand of the property. The project remains on budget with the remaining amenities expected to continue to come online throughout the first half of 2026. Building on this momentum, we are pleased to announce the next phase of Sunset Station, which is designed to further strengthen the company's competitive position and broaden its customer appeal, positioning it to capitalize on the strong demographic trends and continued growth in the Henderson market, particularly from the master-planned communities of the Sky and Cadence, which are expected to deliver more than 12,500 new households at full build-out. The next phase will continue the comprehensive casino refresh, including expansion and enhancement of the movie theaters, as well as the relocation of the temporary bingo area currently housed in our former buffet space to a new permanent location. Upon completion of the bingo relocation, the former buffet space, we converted into a new high-end steakhouse and high-limit table games room, leveraging a proven strategy of investing in the higher-end value segments of our database that has consistently generated strong returns across our portfolio. Work on this phase is expected to begin in the second quarter, with the remainder of the project commencing in the back half of 2026 and extending into early 2027. The total project cost is estimated at approximately $87 million. At Green Valley Ranch, we continue to make progress on the comprehensive refresh of our guest rooms, suites, and convention spaces, aligning the hotel experience with the recently renovated and well-received high-limit table and slot rooms of the property. Renovations to the West Tower are now complete, and the tower has reopened to strong customer views, and while still early, encouraging financial performance, despite the ongoing disruption on the property. Renovations to the East Tower and the Convention spaces commence during the fourth quarter. We expect the Convention spaces to return to service late in the first quarter, while renovations to the East Tower are expected to extend into the summer of 2026. Continuing with the Green Valley Ranch's long-term redevelopment strategy, we are advancing on the next phase of enhancements at this resort. This phase is designed to further strengthen the property's competitive position as one the premier resort destinations in Las Vegas and broaden its customer appeal through a fully refreshed casino floor along with upgraded food and beverage and entertainment offerings. These enhancements build on the success we have seen from both the high limit product of the property and the early performance of the renovated room inventory and are intended to drive increased visitation and deepen customer engagement across the resort. Work on this phase has already begun, as expected to extend into 2027, with total project costs estimated at approximately $56 million. Turning now to North Fork, construction continues to progress very well, with the opening of the project on track for an early fourth quarter 2026 opening. Total all-in project costs remain approximately $750 million and is fully financed. As of the end of the quarter, Red Rock's outstanding note balance due to the Tribe was approximately $77.9 million. And you may have heard or read about an unfavorable ruling of the tribe received from a California court in December on its single remaining legal matter. This is the same case we have discussed in the past, and we do not believe this ruling will interfere with North Fork's right or ability to conduct gaming on its federally-trust land. We remain excited about this best-in-class development, pleased with the continued progress of construction, and we look forward to providing further updates on future earnings calls. Consistent with our balanced approach to investing in long-term growth while returning capital to our shareholders and following the completion of our fifth consecutive year of record-adjusted EBITDA, we are pleased to announce that the company's Board of Directors has declared a special cash dividend of $1 per Class A common share payable on February 27th to Class A shareholders of record as of February 20th. This action reflects the continued strength we are seeing in our business and the confidence we have in the long-term earnings power of our operating model. In addition, the company's board of directors has also declared its regular cash dividend of 26 cents per Class A common share, payable on March 31st to Class A shareholders of record as of March 16th. With the fourth quarter behind us, the strong momentum for 2025 has carried into the current year, reinforcing our confidence and strength and resilience in our business. Durango continues to validate our long-term growth strategy and underscore the value of our own development pipeline and real estate bank, which includes more than 450 acres of developed land in highly desirable locations across the Las Vegas Valley. Combined with our portfolio of best-in-class assets in premier locations, this pipeline positions us for significant long-term growth and enables us to fully capitalize on the favorable demographic trends and high barriers to entry that define the Las Vegas locals' market. Looking ahead, we remain focused on executing our development pipeline, maintaining operating discipline, and delivering enhanced shareholder returns through a balanced, consistent, and disciplined capital allocation strategy. We want to take a moment to sincerely thank all of our team members for their continued hard work and dedication. Our success truly begins with them. They are the heart of our company and the driving force behind the exceptional guest experiences that keep our customers coming back time and again. In recognition for their efforts, and in addition to the many accolades we have received in recent years, we are proud to share that Station and Casinos has been recognized by Forbes as one of America's best large employers for 2026. This meaningful honor recognizes organizations nationwide that go above and beyond to create an outstanding culture for their team members and reflects our continued commitment to fostering the workplace where individuals feel valued, supported, and empowered to grow and succeed. Lastly, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to our loyal guests for their unwavering support over the past six decades. We are deeply thankful for the trust they place in us and look forward to continuing to serve our communities for many years to come. With that, operator, we're happy to open the line for questions.
Operator
We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. Our first question today is from David Katz with Jeffries. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my question. um look i think we've you know we we look at the las vegas valley as a whole and i know we've discussed in the past the connection between you know what may go on on the strip what may go on in other destination pockets within the valley um can you just talk about you know what you're seeing in terms of demand levels um you know as it relates to other areas because candidly you know we've heard sort of pockets of weakness and you know forward-looking strength uh just Just give us an update on what you've seen and are seeing.
Hi, David. Thanks for the question. Probably the best place to start would be in the hotel, and then we can kind of transition into other revenue areas. For the quarter, it's important to note that you have to adjust for the rooms that were out at GBR. When you do that, we performed quite well. So the down in the hotel was essentially the room nights that we lost being down at GBR. So if you baseline that from an ADR perspective, from an occupancy perspective, and an overall revenue perspective, we did quite well. And we did much better than what is publicly available from a REVPAR perspective compared to the strip. That was really a function of strong sales effort on the part of our sales team, and then also Red Rock and Durango from a leisure segment having very high ADR. So we like where we sit in hotel, and we think that our hotel product is differentiated from the Strip in that regard. The quality of our assets, the value proposition, and the ease and location of our properties really lets us compete at a different level when it comes to the hotel. From a gaming perspective, we continue to see regional and national be one of our strongest performing areas of the database. And as Steve mentioned, we had a record four-quarter revenue in gaming. And again, we think that's attributable to a couple of things. One, the investment in our high limit rooms and our move towards higher net worth customers, as well as the quality of our assets where people are finding from a regional and national perspective that our offering is quite compelling versus a strip from a convenience and quality perspective. Steve, I don't know if you want to add anything.
Yeah, I mean, David, I know a lot of what comes to this between the strip and the local. It kind of really does start that we don't rely on tourism, we don't rely on conventions, we don't rely on hotel-driven revenue, right? We are a local's market, incredibly gaming-centric. We offer a distinct value proposition to our guests, and we rely on our guests to come back multiple times a month. In fact, 50% of our guests come over eight times a month. I think that is a differentiating factor between, I think, us and the strip.
And I think the other thing is, if you look at the locations that we have within the local market, we have the best locations in the market strategically located off the beltways. And where our properties are located is where all the new growth and new housing is taking place. So we feel great about where we are.
Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks, David.
Operator
The next question is from Ben Chaykin with Mizuho. Please go ahead.
Hey, how's it going? Thanks for taking my question. You know, there's a number of new projects you're working on. Given there's some updated timelines, you know, in coordination with Phase 2 at Sunset and Phase 2 of GVR, as well as Durango, which was previously announced, can you help us with maybe the total construction disruption that you're thinking in 26 and maybe any cadence that would be relevant?
Sure, I can start. and I know the team can jump in, so if I kind of go back to Q4, Q4 we experienced probably about $5.1 million of disruption, mainly at our Green Valley Ranch property. When I looked at our Sunset Station property, the disruption was minimal. So there's some slight differences, but we had previously announced.
That being said, we don't know how much better we could have done if we weren't renovating them.
It's a bit of a gut feel other than the hotel segment at Green Valley. We know we've got 300 rooms down, so we can calculate that, obviously.
And I think that Frank would echo that same point about Durango, where we're just beginning construction on the North Valley, and we're doing our best in both the Sunset Project and the Durango Project to mitigate and minimize the operational impact while maintaining construction timelines. Moving into the first quarter, as Lorenzo mentioned, Green Valley Ranch is very easy to calculate because it's all rooms-based, and we have a history on that. We are going to be in peak construction on the East Tower and the convention in Green Valley, so we expect disruption approximately about $9 million. And then, as mentioned, we're going to continue to manage and monitor the potential impacts at Sunset Station and Durango on those projects as they move forward to what's called more active phases of construction. But I do want to remind everyone that, you know, well, these impacts, all these disruption impacts are short, very short-term in nature. You know, the redevelopment of our properties to ensure that we remain best in class, we're equipped with amenities that keep allowing our guests to return time and time again, that is central to Frank and Lorenzo's strategy. So over the long run, we expect to generate significant return from these capital investments and further widen our competitive advantage from other locals in the market, but also the Strip.
Okay, that's helpful. I guess, isn't $9 million a good bogey then for the year? I mean, that sounded like just the 1Q number.
That was the 1Q number. I think you're going to end up maybe like $4 or $5 million probably in Q2 at Green Valley. And I'm hesitant right now to, as Frank and Lorenzo talked about, the Durango and the Sunset seem more of a gut feel. So not ready to give guidance on that one just yet.
On Green Valley, you know, that disruption, those rooms will be coming online in July, kind of by summer all the rooms should be delivered by then and the meeting space so it's it's not far away we're getting through the brunt of it right now thank you this question is from barry jonas with truest securities please go ahead hey guys um you know generally i think q4 to q1 ebitda is usually up about his apologies six to seven percent uh any reason uh outside of the disruption to think that could fare better or worse this year?
Yeah, Barry, I think your number might be a little high. As I always thought of seasonality between Q4 and Q1, it depends how far you go back. I go back prior to COVID, so I'm usually about 5.5%. Yeah, but I don't think that there's any reason that we can't achieve those returns, the one note being that $9 million disruption. And just note, so there's no confusion, right?
That means roughly if i'm going sequentially uh as you just did uh that would mean really 3.9 million in in extra disruption to green valley versus q4 great and then just at a high level sorry barry got it and it yeah and then just as a follow-up you know as we head towards tax refund season maybe just give your latest thoughts about expectations for any top line benefits from uh the one big beautiful bill. Thank you.
I mean, Barry, I mean, I think ultimately we're looking forward to a tax return just started. I mean, the tax return season just started. I think the way these generally trend, if I look at 25 to 24, about a third of these refunds are done by sometime, what's called late February, and almost 50% of them are done by mid-March. But, you know, the key measures there, including the elimination of, you know, the federal tax on TIPS, you're looking at overtime, the new senior tax credit, the reduction in marginal tax rates, and increased child and family tax credits, as well as expanded standard deductions. We feel, especially given where our assets are positioned and where people are moving to and where people currently are, that we are in prime position to take advantage of the excess discretionary income hitting the Las Vegas locals market.
Operator
The next question is from Chad Benyon with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. With respect to the GVR and Sunset Station updates around additional capital, some of that going into 27, how does that affect the timing of the developmental pipeline for greenfield projects beyond this year?
Yeah, this is Lorenzo. It doesn't affect it at all. It's just part of our kind of ongoing strategy. We really believe that the key to our long-term success is investing in our existing properties and keeping them fresh. And like Steve said, it helps continue to separate us from our competition. It also, I think, is allowing us to start to gain some market share, grab some market sharing from the SHRIP as we're seeing a lot of customers, particularly on the high end, that are coming over, that historically stayed at the SHRIP that are now staying with us based on, you know, the amenities we have and the services that we provide. So, listen, any time that we go out and say that we're going to invest money in a high-limit slots and high-limit table games at these properties, believe me, that's a great investment. And that's something that you guys should be really happy about. We've seen great returns on those investments historically. And it's just part of the process of how we've repositioned the properties and the brand coming out of COVID from, you know, all those spaces prior to that were essentially buffets, where a lot of those buffets, people coming into the property, they were discounted buffets, it was a loss leader. And we've completely flipped that from that being a loss to being now assets that are generating substantial profit. But as far as new builds, I mean, that is really what we believe is one of the core competencies of our company is being able to go out, identify a piece of property, start from scratch, design the property first on ingress to ingress, and then figuring out what the product wants to be and how we're going to operate it. We're currently working on multiple properties right now, I would say, in kind of full-on design. we have entire we're going through the entitlement process uh on them and um it just takes time um and we're we'll have an update you know hopefully fairly soon on exactly what the time frame is going to be but the investments that we're making in our current properties will have no effect at all on on new properties and new builds okay great for that uh extra color and then um you know it It sounds like we're hearing some conflicting things in terms of just the buzz and activity at your properties and around, you know, the locals market for the Super Bowl.
I think most of the headline media was around, you know, strip prices, but we heard, you know, different things in the locals market. But can you maybe just talk broadly around how traffic was this weekend and, you know, given the game outcome, if there should be a negative headwind for the first quarter versus last year?
Yeah, Chad, this is Scott. I can tell you I had the pleasure of touring the properties on Sunday and walking with the general managers and want to give them and their team a lot of support for what they did. I can tell you there's no better place to be on Super Bowl weekend than a station casino property. We had every property fully programmed, whether it was the bars, the restaurants, the race and sports, VIP parties for our best guests. We were buzzing, and we had decent results from the Super Bowl from a betting perspective and even better results from a gaming perspective on slots and food and beverage. And if there was any slowdown elsewhere, it wasn't in our properties.
Thanks, Scott. Appreciate it, guys.
Operator
The next question is from Jordan Bender with Citizens. Please go ahead.
Hey, everyone. Thanks for the question. I want to hit on the 90% deduction from the one big, beautiful bill. From what we can see, it doesn't seem like there's much momentum to revert it back to what it was. So, you know, have you guys done any work around how much of a threat that could be, particularly for the higher end business?
Yeah, this is Scott. I'll take it first from a customer perspective, and then maybe Steve can talk a little bit about what to do about it. For the most part, if there was an impact, it's relatively centered around just education and our customers trying to figure out what it means. So to the degree we can, we try to help them understand, you know, the language in the bill and how it affects them. Steve could probably elaborate a little more on the mechanics of it and, you know, what we're doing in conjunction with not only just us but the whole gaming industry in trying to rectify the legislation to get it adjusted back to where it was.
Sure. I mean, I want to keep it incredibly high level because I think you touched on it. I mean, the rule is incredibly confusing, and so I think that the main goal here, particularly since the legislative seems a little bit tougher to find, is work through administratively through the IRS just to give some clarity around what 90 percent, and how the 90 percent rule works. And so, and making, and then finding a mechanism industry-wide to get that out to our players and our customers.
Great. Thanks, Steve. And I guess, Steve, sticking with you, as we think through your leverage, you know, we kind of run the CapEx numbers through our model, and, you know, when our models are spinning out, maybe leverage is going to stay at the current levels over the next year or Can you just remind us, like, where you are comfortable running the business as we think about, you know, if and when we do get the new build project?
Yeah, I mean, I think in the current leverage position right now, we're, you know, we have an incredibly strong balance sheet, ample liquidity, very flexible credit agreement, and no long-term maturity. So I think at 3.87 times, that's the seventh consecutive quarter deleveraging. We feel that the balance sheet here will provide Frank and Lorenzo a good foundation in which to grow not only their existing capital projects, return capital to our investors, but also position us for the next greenfield, the greenfield investment. If leverage were to creep up because there was a market opportunity, either they wanted to accelerate their new projects or accelerate reinvestment where they saw that they were going to generate ample return, I feel that we could temporarily move leverage beyond where we currently are and still be very comfortable within the balance of the balance sheet.
Operator
The next question is from Steve Pizella with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hey, good evening, and thank you for taking our questions. Just on the promotional environment, can you talk about what you're seeing in terms of promotional activity and the competitive behavior in the locals market?
SD, this is Scott. It's been very consistent. So as we've mentioned on previous calls, you know, there are small single unit operators that have always been competitive promotionally, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not changed a bit over probably the last couple of years. So very stable environment.
Okay, thanks. And then just knowing that it is a smaller part of your business, but with the strong group calendar on the strip expected this year, a commentary that you believe you are getting some demand that might have gone to the strip before, do you expect to receive any benefit from the group business as well?
Yeah, this is Scott. I can tell you we had a great quarter in the fourth quarter as it relates to hotel sales and the associated catering. We see that moving into the first and second quarter of the year. And then as the booking window opens up for the back half of the year, we're encouraged as well. So we're pretty happy with the sales team's effort and the bookings that we have on the book so far.
Operator
The next question is from Dan Pulitzer with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. First, you guys have talked a lot about the benefits of your higher-end rooms, higher-network customers, and as we're thinking about this kind of increasingly bifurcated consumer environment, I don't know, is there any way to kind of frame out how you think about your portfolio, whether it's, you know, the EBITDA contribution from the higher-end properties, the Durangos, GVRs, the Red Rocks of the world, just to kind of better, so we can better appreciate the quality of the customer and the assets that you guys have?
Well, I mean, generally, Dan, as you know, we're not going to sit there and break down the segments. That's why we group up by division. But you can be fairly certain that all the assets across the database are performing really well.
I think it's important to mention that a lot of our customers don't just play at one property. We have a lot of crossover play. You know, whether there's a property close to when they're getting off work or, you know, whatever is convenient. So, you know, they don't tend to be siloed into one singular property.
And some of the other properties, too, we've been encouraged just with the amount of higher-end play that we're starting to see at places like Santa Fe and Sunset Station and even at Palace Station. You know, we're seeing some of the IP high-end play. So it's pretty much throughout the system. Obviously, you know, Green Valley, Durango, and Red Rock kind of lead the charge there. But we're finding that as we add assets to these different areas of the valley and we upgrade the assets, that it's pulling a higher-end customer overall to even those properties and growing the market where maybe somebody wouldn't have come to that property before. Now they're coming to those properties. So part of the market, the function of the market is what's the quality of the product that you provide? And we're seeing that the service quality and the product quality is growing the market for us, casting a wider net as far as what we're able to attract at the properties.
Got it. And then just for following up, I know you're not ready to give that disruption from Durango phase two, phase three here. But, you know, as I think about the $120 million expansion, what side of the property that was on, Now you have a $385 million expansion, which I get extends over a fairly long period of time. I mean, is there any way to kind of couch relative to that $4 million disruption impact you had on the prior phase just so we can kind of try to tweak our expectations and have them in the right place there? Well, listen, a lot of it's a gut feel.
But the reality is with Durango North expansion is that what we've seen historically where you see the bigger parts of disruption is when you disrupt parking, which obviously affects convenience and which is all the locals market is all about is convenience. Or you take down hotel rooms like we've done at Green Valley Ranch because you just don't have the bodies in the building. Look, we certainly expect that we're going to be disrupted at Durango as we continue on with this. But, you know, we look at it as that it's short term. We're talking about 18 months or 16 months from now. And then when we open the property with all these entertainment amenities that we're going to have, we're as confident as we've ever been on that property that foot traffic and gaming traffic going through that property is going to explode with the number of bodies that are going to be there coming to these entertainment assets. So, Steve, I don't know what you're thinking from a disruption standpoint if we're ready to put a number out there. Yeah, I don't think we're quite ready.
I mean, Dan, I don't apologize. We're literally just one month away from just fencing out the property and kind of getting the logistics down. And so what Lorenzo said that it's a short term, about 16 months away really from completion. You also have traffic improvements going on around there.
You know, we just don't really know. We can't quantify it. Maybe after we get 90 days in and see what's going on, You know, with the property, we'll have a better ability to communicate on that. But that's, you know, it's just hard to put a number on. We don't know how much better we might be doing.
That's the key. And, look, as part of the last expansion that we just opened with the VIP slot or the high-limit slots, we opened a new garage. And I can say that every week we're increasing the car counts going into the new garage. So people are figuring it out. They're finding their way. So we're encouraged from that standpoint. But also, we've done this for a long time, and we know that, you know, you're definitely going to feel the impact of disruption when parking is disrupted.
And, Dan, if I kind of revert back to the question that Barry asked, Barry asked, in effect, Q1 guidance. And so, you know, the way I answered him, I feel very comfortable, given the seasonality output and then, you know, the disruption we gave on Green Valley Ranch to achieving So I think that kind of gives me my perspective on the Durango disruption right now.
That's helpful. I appreciate all the detail. Thanks.
Operator
The next question is from Joe Stoff with Susquehanna. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Just one quick follow-up on the Durango discussion. Part of the disruption, as I understand it, is from the road work and so forth. Is the state doing that, or who dictates essentially the disruption in the road work?
Yeah, Joe, Scott, there's two projects that are going on. One, we have an apartment complex right next to us that's being developed. There is some trenching that's going on as we speak there. We're in tight coordination with them to minimize the disruption, but that should be going on for a couple more months here. And then the county is working on an on-ramp off of the access frontage road onto the freeway and a widening of the left turn lane coming off of the freeway, both of which will make ingress and egress much better to our property over the long haul. but that project is going to probably go through the summer of next year it has not started you know the bad the bad news is we have traffic construction roadway construction the good news is we wouldn't have it unless the valley was growing you know so we look at it it's short-term
pain long-term gain just one quick follow-up what what is the outcome or the effect of the California ruling in December? Does the opening date, what is the effect of that ruling?
I think as we indicated in the remarks, Joe, we believe the impact is nothing. And so we believe that the ruling will not change our ability, the tribe's ability to do gaming on federally trust land. Construction is moving incredibly fast. The team out there is doing an amazing job, And we're looking forward to opening this project in the fourth quarter, 26 on schedule. Thanks a lot.
Operator
Next question is from Steve Wazinski with Stiefel. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. So, Steve, if we go back to all the – there's been a lot of talk about, you know, the potential disruption this year. And you've given us a ton of helpful color. And some of it seems like, you know, you're still not certain in terms of what the overall impact is going to be. So I guess the simple, you know, question might be with, you know, with all this disruption as we think about 2026 versus 2025, do you still think you can grow your Las Vegas EBITDA base this year with all this disruption? We do. Second question, Steve or Scott gave color around, you know, the rated play side of things. And I guess the word I've, you know, where we're kind of picking on, it sounds like it's very stable. Did you give any color? Did I miss it in terms of what you're seeing right now from a non-rated perspective?
Yeah. For the quarter, non-rated was up. So, you know, we see it both in our rated customer, our non-rated customer. Really a great quarter for the health of the database if you really dig into all the metrics.
This is Lorenzo. Particular strength, like I said before, in the VIP segment, but also seeing strength in what I'll call kind of our younger segment demographic, 21 to 35, up substantially. Once again, I think partially because of the amenities that we've added over the years are really kind of appealing to a younger guest. And, you know, look, we've been encouraged because they're finding their way to slot machines and table games as well.
Okay, gotcha. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
Operator
The next question is from Stephen Graham with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hey there. Thanks for taking the question. This is a bit of maybe a bigger picture question, but how do you generally think about the right level of maintenance CapEx across the portfolio, thinking about maybe some of the bigger properties versus the smaller properties? And, you know, maybe part of the question, Zipidus, is trying to think through the amount of capital you've deployed, maybe even relative to what we're seeing on the Strip, and if you could be seeing some kind of permanent share gains there.
We think one of the things that separates us is the fact that we're a wholly owned company. We're not an opco, propco structure. And Lorenzo and I take a long-term view towards the portfolio. And, you know, you have maintenance capital, which means what does it take to maintain where we are, where customers are coming in. But we look at some of these repositioning of amenities and what we're doing at Durango in the next phase as literally investments that cast a wider net and draw more customers.
Look, and we're owner-operators. We've been doing this since we were teenagers. And we walk through the properties, obviously, on a regular basis. And we want to make sure that they are looking appropriate. to our customers and that all the equipment and everything that is needed for our team members to be able to provide their jobs and their function is provided. And I think as well, it goes back to even historically when you look at what properties have outperformed on the strip, right? I mean, if you look right now, you've got the properties that have always philosophically invested in their assets. And we do the same thing. If we have a restaurant that's not performing, we'll rip it out and put a new restaurant And I think you see the same thing at the Wynn. You know, they've done that for decades. And it's not a surprise that relative to the rest of the competitive set that they continue to outperform. So it's a very kind of similar mentality, I think, in a way. Even though Steve's not there, they've kind of carried that on. And I think you see it when you walk through the property. It just looks and feels different. And I think customers appreciate that. And we're committed to continue to operate our businesses like that as well.
Maybe one other follow-up kind of related here, but historically, I think there's always been this concern that some of the maybe weaker trends on the Strip could ultimately spill over into the locals' market. It doesn't sound like that's happening at all, but curious where you would be looking out to see maybe the first signs of that, and should we have already maybe seen some of those to kind of highlight that there could be a decoupling here?
I mean, I thought during the first question, I mean, we're just a fundamentally different business, right? So we tend to be a bit more recession resistant. I think if you look back since 1984, I believe the Strip has had 11 times in that instances where gaming GGR was down. The locals market is at six, three of which are related to the great financial crisis. one is related to COVID and the other two are related to 2013 and 2014 when local GGR was down less than 0.3% versus a strip at the same time period down 2%. I think it just goes back to we're gaming centric. We're not hotel driven. We're not convention driven. We're driven by local repeat customers that keep coming time and time again. And then going back to what Frank and Lorenzo said, that's why we are continuing to invest in our properties. That's why we love our locations, and we love our locations because we think we are best positioned to not only separate ourselves from the Strip, but best positioned to gain from the long-term favorable demographic profile.
And I think one of the things that you have to remember and look at is while the Strip may have some revenue declines, they still are a business that has to fill their rooms. Even if the rates are down, they're filling their rooms, which means you still need guest room attendance you still need all those employees to keep those rooms full and so look we we love our position in the market we've been doing this for a long time and the thing we love most about our strategy that is that we have the right locations in the market all locations are not created equal we're in growing markets we're not on surface streets we're on the beltways where we're all the new rooftops are being built.
And we've talked a lot about the VIP and the high-end gaming play and the higher-end restaurants, but I think we've also positioned the brand and the company such that we also have a strong value proposition. You know, $1.99 margaritas, food specials in the cafes. We don't charge for parking. So we provide a product that's accessible to people from all different demographic types and look at the end of the day, People use our properties as their form of entertainment and getaway from a local perspective. And we're really leaning into that when you see the type of amenities that we're adding to a place like Durango.
$1.99 margarita resonates with everyone. Thank you.
Operator
The next question is from Brant Montour with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hey, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. The first one is just full year 25 disruption. I think you guys are originally looking for $25 million. Could you just let us know how that came in to the best of your ability to calculate that?
Yeah, I think it came in better than we thought, Brent. As I even just alluded to last quarter, I think we gave roughly $9 million of disruption, almost $9.5 million of disruption we expected in Q4 alone. And we came in at 5.1 for that quarter.
And then on the new Durango phase, we'll call it phase two, you know, I guess this is the second half 27 opening. Do you foresee opening this in, you know, one amenity at a time? Is it going to be one big grand opening? And then in terms of the breakout, I mean, you're not going to break out the 385, but just when we think about your return thresholds, how much of that total project spend is gaming versus non-gaming? Maybe we could do it that way to help us try and model out the returns on this.
This is Lorenzo. I mean, our expectations is that we would get similar returns than what we've seen on the project so far itself. You know, kind of low teens, growing to mid teens, and eventually growing to kind of our 20% threshold that we've seen historically. I think, well, I know that we will open that property with all of the amenities open, but for possibly one of the food and beverage amenities might trail by, you know, two, three, four months. Still working on that. But the vast majority, call it 90, 95% of the amenities will open with one big bang. That's the way we like to do it, like we open, you know, our new builds. And then relative to a breakout, I mean, I think when you look at the overall capacity that we have in Durango, We still have capacity, even though we're obviously doing incredible business there. So we're adding, how many slots are we adding? 400 additional slots on our base of about 2,200. And, you know, we feel like with the entertainment amenities that we're adding there and just the sheer traffic and foot traffic that we're going to have flowing through the building, we're going to get that benefit onto the gaming floor now on both table games and slots. So I can tell you, we're very confident in the prospects for that project. Thanks, everyone.
Operator
The next question is from John Decree with CBRE. Please go ahead.
Hey, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. Covered a lot of ground, maybe two to round it out. At high level, can you guys talk about what you're seeing in terms of new database ads, and you're obviously performing quite well, but are you still seeing the database grow, and then specifically outside of first-time visitors to Durango as the rest of the portfolio, especially as you make these investments, GVR, Sunset, et cetera, are you seeing your database go new customers that you haven't had before?
Yeah, this is Scott. So even last quarter, I think we mentioned that we saw the database grow from the perspective of actual carded customer count, we grew the database this year. And interestingly, it grew in every demographic segment of age. And then the contribution from a NetTheo perspective of that database grew in every category of age demographic as well, year over year.
And, John, we continue to grow Durango. We continue to see new sign-ups. Even around the Durango area, visits are up. NetTheo's up. spent per business up. So we love our positioning for that property and looking forward to the next phase opening up.
Awesome. One last one, Steve, for you. I think an easy one. We're not expecting much, but just to ask the outlook for OPEX inflation, anything notable this year as we think about margins for 2026 other than the disruption, so specifically on any cost buckets?
Yeah, I mean, we like where we stand from a margin. This is the 20th quarter out of the 22 that we've hit above 45% in LVO without really sacrificing service or operational or customer quality. You know, labor is the one notable, as you know. You know, we live in a very competitive environment in the Valley, and our guests, our employees are our first line to our customers. So I would expect that to go mid-single digits from a labor perspective. But ultimately, you know, we've been managing cogs, we're managing utilities. Insurance expense is really tail wagging the dog that's slightly up. But for the most part, costs are being managed. Great. Thanks, guys.
Operator
The next question is from Trey Bowers with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Hi, this is Zach Silverberg. I'm for Trey. Thanks for taking our questions. First one, I believe last call you mentioned there would be a handful of taverns opening this year. Could you remind us of the overall tavern strategy and your ability to source new or high-end customers and the return profile of the taverns?
Yeah, this is Scott. We have currently eight taverns. We just opened our third tavern about a week and a half, two weeks ago. The thesis for taverns is relatively simple. It's a micro-market strategy where you can get into neighborhoods in areas where maybe we don't have as great a penetration. We have a thesis around our investments in taverns. We like to be in high net worth areas. We like to be in areas where there's growth versus the inner city population. And it's got a unique customer base from a demographic standpoint. It tends to skew mail. It tends to skew sports better. And it tends to skew young. So we like accessing that customer in the hopes that they grow into our overall platform of larger properties. So we have three more properties coming online in the first half and then the remainder in the second half of this year. But the strategy from a growth perspective is highly selective for us. We want to make sure that if we do enter into a new tavern deal, that it fits our thesis and it's accretive. Gotcha.
I appreciate that. And then one more, you previously stated the cannibalization backfill from Durango was about a three-year process. We're approaching that later this year. Could you kind of update us on the timing and progress and how you guys feel about it?
I think we feel very good about where we are from a cannibalization and from more equally as important, the backfill to our core properties. Our core properties are growing with low single digits last quarter, which kind of proves out that fact. So we're in line to where we need to be to hit those targets.
Operator
This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Steve and Coote for any closing remarks.
Thank you, everyone, for joining the call today, and I look forward to talking again in about 90 days.
Operator
The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now discuss.
