Posted on: December 30, 2022, 04:58h. 

Last updated on: December 31, 2022, 11:39h.

MGM Resorts International announced Friday that it has sold most of the land that became the site of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. The buyer of  Las Vegas Village, as the parcel across from the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino is officially known, is the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. MGM Resorts CEO/President Bill Hornbuckle released the news in a company-wide letter.

The Village, Las Vegas Massacre site, Route 91 Harvest music festival
This photo, released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in October 2017, shows the view of Las Vegas Village that Stephen Paddock had when he killed 60 people during the Route 91 Harvest music festival. (Image: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)

“The Three Affiliated Tribes have demonstrated that they care about our community, its future and, of course, its past,” Hornbuckle wrote. “I’d like to thank them for their commitment to the community and wish them the best moving forward. They will announce their plans for the space on a future date.”

The sale closed today.

The 13-acre transaction does not involve the two acres MGM committed last August to a permanent memorial project for the tragedy. Called “Memorial to Remember,” that project is still slated to be built next to the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer, a Roman Catholic church that became a refuge for victims of the massacre.

“Having a permanent memorial is essential to our community’s healing, and we’ll continue working with and supporting the county as they move forward in the development and construction process,” Hornbuckle wrote in today’s letter.

For more than 10 minutes beginning at 10:05 p.m. on Oct. 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock fired more than 1,000 rounds from Room 32‑135 of the Mandalay Bay. The shots were into a crowd of 22,000 attendees of the Route 91 Harvest music festival. Paddock ultimately killed 60 and wounded 867 others before shooting and killing himself. His attack was meticulously planned. To this day, however, his motives remain a mystery.

In 2020, MGM, which also owns Mandalay Bay, settled a class action lawsuit from 4,000 survivors and victims’ families for $800 million.

Las Vegas Village has been dormant since that horrible night.

Who Are the Three Affiliated Tribes?

The Three Affiliated Tribes are a sovereign nation comprised of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara nation tribes, also known as MHA Nation. They are based in the Fort Berthold Reservation in western North Dakota, the second-most productive geographic area for shale oil production in the US. The group has collected nearly $1.7 billion in tax revenues from drilling on nearly 1 million acres of its own land over the past 15 years.

This is the Three Affiliated Tribes’ second major purchase of land near Allegiant Stadium in two years. During a July 2020 bankruptcy auction, they purchased a vacant 8.7 acres just south of Las Vegas Village for $12 million.

The nation has not announced plans for either property yet.

Today’s sale scuttles the plans MGM announced in September 2019 to  turn the site into a community and athletics center for host high-school basketball and kids’ indoor soccer.

“We know the importance this location holds to so many, and have always put tremendous thought into every consideration involving the site,” Hornbuckle wrote. “This is no exception.”