HotelChatter

Station would not say whether a reopened Castaways would be organized by the Culinary union as it was in the past.

However, Culinary Local 226 Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor said the property would be a "pretty expensive mothball," and that Station, whose other properties are not organized, could do a lot to redeem itself with the union if it reopened the hotel-casino and rehired the workers who lost their jobs.

Castaways was previously the Showboat.  Harrah's bought Showboat from its shareholders in 1998 for $550 million, principally for the brand name and to own and operate Showboat properties in Atlantic City and East Chicago that it still has rather than for the Las Vegas hotel-casino.

VSS bought the former Showboat from  Harrah's Entertainment in March 2000 for $23.5 million. It renamed the property and introduced its Spanish ocean theme.

The property was severely affected by the tourism slowdown that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and also by the country's economic recession, but many experts believe the loss of its Showboat name was the beginning of the property's end.

The Castaways filed for bankruptcy protection on June 26, 2003, listing debts of more than $50 million.

The Castaways was closed and 800 workers laid off Jan. 29, 2004 after creditor Vestin Mortgage, acting under authority of a U.S. Bankruptcy Court order, notified Castaways owner VSS Enterprises it would enter the casino and collect its collateral backing a mortgage loan.

Vestin then bought the bankrupt 25.9-acre property for $20.7 million on Feb. 1, 2004 at a foreclosure sale after its bankrupt former owners were unable to satisfy terms of a $22 million-plus mortgage note.