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Edward Pitoniak

Thank you, Samantha, and good morning everyone. Over the next few minutes, John will talk to you about our exciting new relationship with Red Rock Resorts and our other growth activities, and then David will discuss our recent refinancing, our results, and our increased guidance.
To start, I'd like to share my thoughts on what we at VICI anchor to in all times, especially in periods of high volatility and low certainty, and that is working to ensure that we maintain our ability to sustain and grow the current cash income we distribute to our stockholders in the form of our dividend.
For a REIT management team, that should, of course, be standard operating procedure, and because of that, one might think that the sustaining and growing of dividends would be top of mind for REIT investors as well. Again, one would think, and yet, when we meet with our investors, which we do with great frequency, many of them will end the meeting by asking, is there anything we didn't ask about that other investors are asking about?
When we are asked this question, we often answer with, well, you didn't ask about our dividend, but don't feel bad because very few investors do. Call me old fashioned, but I believe strongly that dividends should always be a top of mind topic, especially for REITs, but frankly, for most equity investments. As I'm sure you all know, over the long term, the last 100 years, dividends have contributed about one-third of the S&P 500's total return, and that's despite the fact that the long-term dividend yield of the S&P 500 has averaged under 2% over the last 30 years.
Given the greater dividend yield of REITs, dividends of course matter even more to total returns. As of yesterday's close, the trailing five year total return of the RMZ REIT index was 54%, of which 27% was price return and 27% was dividend return. Or that same five year period, which I should note started in the spring 2020 COVID drawdown for stocks.
VICI has generated 138% points of total return, of which 84 points come from price return, and about 54 points come from dividend return. I will also note that during that same five year period, the S&P 500 generated 106 percentage points of return, of which 91 points were price return and 15 points were dividend return.
As you can see over that five year period, dividends were a major factor in VICI outperforming the S&P 500 by a margin of over 30 percentage points or by about 30%. Over the last year or two, especially given the [mag 7's] dominance of investor mind and market share, dividends didn't get a lot of attention. But it's been interesting in recent weeks amidst the volatility of both equity and credit markets to see dividends being talked about again.
One of my favorite readings each week is Michael Hartnett's weekly flow show bulletin, which tends to come out late Thursday evening or early Friday morning. In his April 11 bulletin, in this in inimitably cryptic way, Michael made the following points, and I quote, on portfolios we say A own credit, e.g., long dated high quality US corporate bonds, many yielding 5% to 6%. B on equity income. 71 companies within the S&P 500 have a dividend yield greater than 4%. 41 have a dividend yield greater than 5%. Buy stocks that can defend dividend, unquote.
Did you get that? Did you get Michael's point that as of his writing on April 11, only 71 companies in the S&P 500 had dividend yields above 4% and only 41 had dividends above 5%. What's notable about those dividend yields, especially the greater than 5% dividend yield is that those yields are comfortably above the current rate of inflation and then thus generate a meaningful real return in a world where real return matters as much as ever.
As a fellow VICI stockholder, it gladdens me to point out that as an S&P 500 stock, VICI currently offers a dividend yield greater than 5%, and we believe that that dividend yield is to paraphrase Michael Hartnett, a defended dividend. In the coming weeks and months, equity market volatility may die down, or it may not. Who really knows?
But whether market volatility dies down or not, a well-defended dividend can, and I believe likely will be a significant contributor to total return for the market as a whole and for VICI and its stockholders. Everything we do at VICI is ultimately about total return in all of its key components.
And so now I'll turn the call over to John and David, who will talk further about what we're doing to drive total return over the near and long term through our growth activities and through balance sheet and cost of capital optimization. John?

John Payne

Thanks, Ed. Good morning to everyone. VICI is very proud of our core ability to develop relationships and convert them into valuable long-term investment partnerships. Not only were we able to successfully do this with Kane and Eldridge's teams and connection with one Beverly Hills earlier in the first quarter, but subsequent quarter end, we closed our first transaction in partnership with Red Rock Resorts connected to the development of a casino on tribal land in Central California.
As announced in our earnings release last night on April 4, VICI committed up to $510 million of a delayed draw term loan facility for the development of the North Fork Mono Casino and Resort, which will be developed and managed by Red Rock Resorts. Red Rock is a premier gaming development and management company that operates productive assets and attractive geographies, and they've developed over $9 billion of regional gaming and entertainment destinations.
They are also an established leader in Native American gaming have developed and managed tribal casinos for over 20 years. Red Rock broke ground on the North Fork project in September 2024, and expects it to be completed by September of 2026. Upon completion, the casino is expected to feature 2,400 slot machines, 40 table games, two restaurants, three bars, a food hall, and a small retail offering.
The 305 acre site located in Madera, California, directly adjacent to Highway 99, where 4.2 million people live within a 2-hour drive of the North Folk site. This transaction established a formal relationship between VICI and Red Rock and represent Red Rock's first partnership with a REIT. For VICI, it represents our first gaming investment on tribal land and our second investment on tribal land overall, with the first being our great wolf Northeast loan announced in February of 2023.
Lending on tribal land in partnership with a high quality gaming operator in Red Rock demonstrates VICI's ability to drive high quality opportunities for continued investment in the gaming sector.
Another benefit of VICI's relationship-based approach is that it fosters close communication with each of our tenants. Having just 13 tenants and 8 financing partners on our roster allows us to maintain consistent and frequent dialogue with all of them, which is particularly advantageous during this volatile times such as these. We believe this level of communication, coupled with the monthly financial reporting received from the majority of our tenants provides VICI with strong oversight of our portfolio.
Looking across our portfolio, we continue to be big believers in Las Vegas, as there are just so many unique demand drivers that continue to fuel the city's activity. For example, over the Easter weekend, Las Vegas hosted WWE's Wrestle Mania at Allegiant Stadium, drawing nearly 125,000 fans and marking the largest gate for any event in WWE history.
T-Mobile Arena has also hosted has recently hosted packed houses for Stanley Cup playoff games, and the musical talent at the sphere remains a compelling draw for the city. Additionally, during the first quarter, tens of thousands of guests attending conferences hosted by companies like Home, Depot and Adobe flooded the city with activity.
While a potential international travel slowdown has come into question, we would note that only 12% of Las Vegas visitation in 2024 was from international travelers. It is also possible Las Vegas may benefit from a domestic trade down effect if Americans forego international destinations.
In regional gaming, we continue to monitor the landscape, and based on prior periods of heightened market volatility, we expect performance to be relatively resilient. Property performance will vary based on geography and assets, and at VICI we focus on working with our tenants so they feel positioned to continue to successfully operate the properties we own.
Like I said, partnership is at the core of what we do. It is one of the key factors underlying our success in building this company as it drives current and future opportunities and allows our team to consistently seek to create value for our shareholders.
Now I will turn the call over to David who will discuss our financial results and guidance. David?

David Kieske

Thanks, John. It's great to speak with everyone today and we greatly appreciate your time. Starting with our Q1 capital markets activity and balance sheet, at the end of the quarter, we very successfully addressed all of our 2025 maturities, and now we have no debt maturing until September of 2026. On March 26, we priced our bond offering and at its peak, our order book was 6 times oversubscribed.
We see $400 million of three year notes at a coupon of 4.75% and $900 million of 10 year notes at a coupon of 5.625% or a blended coupon of 5.34%, including the impact of our hedging program. During the quarter, we also sold 7.8 million shares, raising $254 million in gross proceeds under our ATM via the forward. And as I mentioned on our last call, in February, we recast our $2.5 billion unsecured multi-currency revolving credit facility and extended the maturity until 2029, providing us additional duration and an ample source of liquidity.
We have approximately $3.2 billion in total liquidity, comprised of approximately $334 million in cash, $625 million under our outstanding boards, and $2.3 billion of availability under our revolving credit facility. Our net debt to annualized first quarter adjusted EBITDA, excluding the impact of unsettled forward equity is approximately 5.3 times within our target leverage range of 5 times to 5.5 times.
Taking into account our recent bond refinancing activity, we have a weighted average interest rate of 4.47% as adjusted to account for our hedge activity and a weighted average 6.7 years to maturity. Our proactive risk management of our cost of capital, of our balance sheet, and of our liquidity profile through volatile markets allows our team to stay focused on building relationships and our investment pipeline.
This allows VICI to continue pursuing our sustained and sustainable return goals for our shareholders without having to go pencils down for any period of time.
Just touching on the income statement. AFFO per share was $0.58 for the quarter, an increase of 4.3% compared to $0.56 for the quarter ended March 31, 2024. Our results once again highlight our highly efficient triple net model, given the increase in adjusted EBITDA as a proportion of the corresponding increase in revenue. Our margins continue to run strong in the high 90% range when eliminating non-cash items.
Our G&A was $14.9 million for the quarter, and as a percentage of total revenues was only 1.5%, which continues to be one of the lowest ratios in not only the triple net sector, but across all leads.
Turning the guidance. And as we noted in our release last night, we are raising our AFFO guidance for 2025 in both absolute dollars as well as on a per share basis. AFFO for the year ending December 31, 2025 is now expected to be between $2.47 billion and $2.5 billion or between $2.33 and $2.36 per delivered common share. Compared to our prior AFFO per per share guidance of [232 to 235], the raise represents an increase of a penny at both ends of the range.
Based on the midpoint of our increased 2025 guidance, VICI now expects to deliver year-over-year AFFO per share growth at 3.8%. Just as a reminder, our AFFO per share guidance or guidance, excuse me, does not include the impact on operating results for any transactions that have not closed interest income from many loans that do not yet have final draw structures, possible future acquisitions or dispositions, capital markets activity, or other non-recurring transactions or items.
With that operator, please open the line for questions.

Question and Answer Session

Operator

(Operator instructions)
Steve Sakwa, Evercoree ISI.

Steve Sakwa

Yeah, thanks. Good morning, I guess I wanted to focus on the the newest deal, and maybe just get a little bit more color on, kind of the, I guess the draw of the property given the location, it's reasonably far from say the Bay Area. I heard, I think John's comments about the local population, but I guess is it fair to assume that you're, this resort is really being designed to just tap that central California market? Do you expect other kind of draws into the area. Just trying to get a better feel for kind of what's going to attract people there.
And then secondly, given that it's on Indian land, how does the collateral work to the extent something doesn't work out? I don't think you can own property on casino land, so just trying to understand sort of the protections VICI has in the lending structure.

John Payne

George, Steve, John Payne talking. Nice to talk to you this morning. We spent a lot of time over the years. First, we'll start with getting to know the operator of the business, Red Rock Resorts. This is our first opportunity to work with them, but we've known them for years. We've followed, what they've done, in Las Vegas. We've watched their developments, most recently, the Durango facility that's being built and is already being expanded, so we've been incredibly impressed with the way they operate their businesses, the way they run the facilities, and obviously you could argue they are the best developers in the gaming space.
They've been working on this facility with the nation for over, I believe over 20 years and have studied how successful this can be. The catchment area, as I mentioned in my opening remarks is large, and I do think there is what we've seen is there's a last mover advantage or new business can attract new customers and steal customers from from others, particularly when you have a great operator who understands the way-- understands customers the way that Red Rock does. So we were very excited to work this opportunity and to announce this first deal with Red Rock.
I'll turn it over to David here who worked on a lot of the details of this deal.

David Kieske

Yeah, Steve, good to talk to you. And just in terms of location, and the location is phenomenal, as John mentioned in his comments, it's right off the Highway 99, 4.5 million people go by the site. The competition in the area will be far, is far inferior to the quality of the build that Red Rock is developing here and the draw that this facility will have in the area.
And it's just in terms of, other ways that we got comfortable with this, and this Red Rock went out to raise this capital and we participated in the syndicate of large money center banks. So, the total loan $725 million or $510 million of that commitment.
And just given Red Rock experience, as John alluded to, there is a guarantee from Red Rocks to complete the project, and we felt really good about stepping in and developing a relationship with Red Rock, who is just one of the best developers out there in gaming as well as travel gaming facilities.

Operator

Barry Jonas, Trust Securities.

Barry Jonas

I was just curious, if your view on tribal cell lease back has changed at all, obviously you've done a lot of work on it and this deal brings you a little bit closer, not quite there yet, so thanks.

Edward Pitoniak

Yeah, this is Ed. I'll start and, John and David can add in. Tribal sale lease backs continue to be for us a complex subject we haven't entirely figured out. Steve was right to ask about the collateral on a lending package of a casino on tribal land, but especially with the involvement of Red Rock, we have a high level of confidence that the asset can perform and that our collateral is good and it's obviously in the interests of the tribe that Red Rock be able to operate the property successfully and that our loan eventually be able to be paid off.
When it comes to a sale lease back, I would say we still haven't exactly figured out if we can get comfortable with the nuances of owning property on a tribal land, given the fact, as Steve alluded to, in the event of any kind of default, we, as the owner of the building would not have the right or the opportunity to operate the gaming, which is obviously the economic engine of the asset. So I would say at this point, we are still very much in a learning phase, but very glad to be partnering with the tribe and with Red Rock in this opportunity. David or John, anything you want to add?

David Kieske

Yeah, you got it right.

Barry Jonas

Great, and then just as a follow up, given the macro environment, I'm just curious if you're seeing tariffs impact any of your partners in terms of their construction budgets or timing, any impact to drawing down schedules or else future discussions for pipeline. Thanks.

Edward Pitoniak

Yeah, no, it's a very good question, Barry. And, as a general principle, there are obviously general conditions, across the construction landscape. And, when it comes to general conditions, you really want to be able to understand, are you partnering with a development company?
That is very experienced in development through thick and thin, or are you partnering with an operator with a deep and successful track record of development? So whether it's Kane at One Beverly Hills, which is a dedicated development company, or Red Rock, which is an operating company with a very proven track record as a developer, as John pointed out, a $9 billion dollar development track record.
We're very confident in their ability to manage the variability associated with tariffs, and, in particular, get in front of them, and David has been very close to Kane as it's gone through the planning and costing of this project, I don't know if you want any color on how resourceful and anticipatory they have been when it comes to the whole tariff.

David Kieske

They're obviously understanding the magnitude of what they're building getting ahead of the tariffs as best as they possibly can, even developing hedging strategies around, being a little bit kind of groundbreaking around hedging, potential future purchases around raw materials, but knowing that they have the right contingency and the right development experience in place to help me get this bill to this comfort.

Barry Jonas

Great. Thanks so much. Appreciate the call.

Operator

Anthony Paolne, JPMorgan.

Anthony Paolne

Great, thanks. Good morning. I was wondering if you could talk about what the pipeline has looked like lately in the face of just the macro volatility and whether there have been any changes in the types of things that you're seeing, types of deals that folks want to do or don't want to do geography, so forth.

Edward Pitoniak

Yeah, I'll turn it over to John and Molly here, Tony, but, I feel a little bit like we're living in [Groundhog] Day because I think at Beachy we've been talking about volatility for a while now, and one could say, VICI, are you ever going to stop talking about volatility, but it seems to have been a reality of our life now for at least a couple of years, and I think we would be foolhardy to have a house view at VICI that it's going to die down anytime soon.
It certainly affects, I think, on a most fundamental level, Tony, it certainly affects animal spirits around M&A and the growth ambitions that usually drive M&A. I would say across the gaming spectrum and Narrowly and the experiential spectrum more broadly. These volatile conditions and the uncertainty around both economic conditions and capital financing conditions have somewhat diminished animal spirits around growth, and growth by operators is, we believe, the biggest driver of the demand for our kind of capital and the role our capital can play. In operators either developing new assets or through M&A growing their store account and having summarized sort of the general conditions.
I'll turn over to John for more specific color.

John Payne

Well Tony, Ed answered that very well. Really quarter-to-quarter things don't change that quickly in the spaces that we look at is my opening remarks talked a lot about relationship-based approach, and my colleagues are always tired of me saying, you don't do a deal at the first lunch. So we continue to spend time with operators not only in gaming, but in other forms of experiential. We educate them on how our capital can work and we continue to see if there's opportunities where we can be valuable during this time, ensuring that it's a creative for us and valuable to them.

Anthony Paolne

Got it. Thanks and then just one follow up on the guidance. How much in committed capital for various projects and loans, et cetera.is not in the guide because there's not a draw schedule just wondering like how much like you kind of have, but just didn't put in at this point.

David Kieske

Given the guidance, Tony it's about $130 million of committed capital. I'd have to get back in with outside of that. I just kind of know what's you know that and that comprises finishing off Great Wolf Northeast home field (inaudible) starting up as well as obviously the North Fork investment that we just announced.

Anthony Paolne

Okay, good, (multiple speakers)

Edward Pitoniak

Yeah, I think Tony it'd be fair to say a lot, but we will get back to you with a a more precise answer than a lot is outside.

Operator

Caitlin Burrows, Goldman Sachs.

Caitlin Burrows

Hi, first, maybe I'll follow up on that last question and congrats on the new relationship with Red Rocks. Can you give any details on why you think they came to you for development funding? I think you mentioned that it is part of a larger syndicate. And then do you have any insight on how the timing of the funding could play out, which again I feel like is what just was asked and maybe the answer is no, but confirming.

John Payne

Caitlin, it's John. I'll start and then turn it over to David. That seems the rhythm of this call right now. But, look, we have followed with great respect, I guess, of the Red Rock since we started the company, even before my time when I was a former casino operator for 23 years, I've watched Red Rock and watch what they have operated and really watched what they've developed.
So as as Ed and I started the company back in 2017, he asked me the companies that I had great respect with and one of them was obviously Red Rocks and went out and started to build a relationship. It's started that far back and there just hadn't been any opportunity for us to work together. And so as they, as we talked through the years about this opportunity coming to them developing this opportunity, we obviously, we're in the loop from the start and had a good conversation and we're excited to be a part of it.

David Kieske

And then Caitlin, in terms of just the funding cadence, this is a construction draw schedule. We put out an initial $75 million upon closing, but it'd be a little bit more regular cadence between now and as John said September 26 when it opens up, so we're excited about the ability to deploy capital on a consistent monthly basis.

Edward Pitoniak

And I will just add, Caitlin, that for those who don't follow gamin are read analysts and are read investors, to understand, Red Rock, you really need to understand and experience, moreover, the quality of what they build and the quality of their operation.
I think, John, it would be fair to say it is strip level quality, even when it is off strip as most of their assets as all of their assets are, and if you were in Las Vegas, I think we'd highly encourage you to visit their assets like the Red Rocks sort of anchor in in Summerland or their new asset in Durango, which is, as John says, very comparable to what you can expect them to be building with their partners in North Fork.

Caitlin Burrows

Got it. And I know that there's limited detail you guys can give us on future, but I know that when you guys establish these relationships, it's not with the intent of doing a single deal. So considering that and all the development Red Rocks has done in the past, I'm wondering how you think about that future opportunity with them. Are you thinking it would be more development? Are there still lease back opportunities, something else?

John Payne

Well, Caitlin, there right now there's no other opportunities. It's a one transaction with them. I think the question you're asking is, in the future, if Red Rock was growing their business, would we be interested in helping them grow in a variety of ways, whether it was sell the real estate, whether it was another opportunity to develop.
The answer is absolutely yes for the right opportunity and obviously it's got to be accreta for us and work for them, but I hope you hear from our remarks. We have tremendous respect for how they run their company, how they develop their projects, how they build partnerships with tribal nations. We really like all of that, but it's, to be clear, this is one opportunity and only one opportunity today, but we would hope or we would love the opportunity in the future, but no commitments.

Caitlin Burrows

Got it. Thanks.

Operator

Rich Hightower, Barclays.

Rich Hightower

Hey, good morning guys. Thanks for taking the question here. Just, maybe a little more of the nuts and bolts on the tribal side and the deal with Red Rock, but just to be clear, Red Rock's, the borrower, the collateral package the VICI you would have an interest in, it sounds like has really nothing to do with the land itself, but it really would be just the construction that sits on top of the land. Just help me understand kind of what that is and a little more about the security of anything, might ever go wrong and obviously doesn't sound like it ever would, but just help us understand that.
And then, secondly, it does sound like tribal lending is this much bigger opportunity than maybe any of us sort of appreciated sitting here 12 months ago and just help us understand how that landscape has evolved and changed, now that GLPI's announced a deal you guys have now have announced this deal, just help us understand the moving parts there as well please

David Kieske

Yeah, right. It's David. I'll start and then I'll just (inaudible) in. The borrower is actually the tribe, North Monte Rio, Red Rocks' developer and providing the construction guarantee or completion guarantee to get the project built, the oversight, the expertise that we talked about that they bring to the table, and so the collateral is the building, but obviously we talked about in this call and other calls taking that back is very difficult, and given the fact that the tribe is the only entity that has the right to operate gaming.
So we've got full faith and conviction around Red Rock and their buildings, the fact that they're putting up their -- they put up their balance sheet to provide the initial funding. This loan will complete the funding and as I mentioned, there's a whole host of money center banks that have come into the syndicate to provide the financing for the development here.

Samantha Gallagher

Yeah, just one other thing to add. This is Samantha, with respect to the collateral package, we also have a first priority security interest in the future cash flows and revenues from the gaming activities, and inclusive of the gaming, and that's an important point.
And also when we think about lending. Lending versus a sale lease back. It's also thinking about the LTV or the LTC, which is different than your percentage interest when you're looking at what your quote unquote collateral when you already own the building and you can operate and so we view them as as different when you think about (inaudible) where we are on the risk spectrum.

Edward Pitoniak

(multiple speakers)
Yeah, this is all dependent on it ultimately operating successfully. And again, the involvement of a proven operating partner, proven across the gaming landscape broadly, but specifically in tribal gaming and specifically in California gives us a lot of comfort, and I really would not minimize the importance of that completion guarantee either from Red Rock.

Rich Hightower

Okay. And then, I guess the second part of the question just, maybe more broadly about the tribal lending landscape and, maybe help me understand too if if there were other traditional lending sources for a lot of these projects historically. What has other than pricing, maybe there's more to it, what has caused the REITs, to kind of have an opening in the way that we've seen in the last few quarters here.

John Payne

It's definitely something we continue to look at, Rich. I'm not here to say that there's 20 opportunities out there, but it's definitely a part of our business that we're studying, better understanding, as Ed just walked you through, not all deals are the same, not all deals have an operator like Red Rocks running it, but it's something that we're looking at.
I don't think you should say this is something the res have been looking at just the past two quarters. I think what you should know is at least from a VICI perspective, these are things that we study for years and it doesn't mean that it shows up and we've looked at it for three months. So this is something we've been studying for years.
There have been others that have been involved in this type of lending over the decades that tribal casinos have been developed all over the United States, but it's something that this particular opportunity was one we were quite excited about, and obviously we announced that investment here over the past coming days.

Edward Pitoniak

And just to, kind of reiterate what I said to Tony, Rich, growth creates a demand for capital and, as you look across the US gaming landscape, California is still a relatively young gaming jurisdiction. I think John Gaming has been in California now for maybe 20 odd years, and it is only tribal gaming in California. So there is still white space on the California gaming map. Tribes are gaining the opportunities to put new stores onto that map, and that's creating a need for capital that you don't necessarily see everywhere else in the country at this point.

Rich Hightower

Alright. Appreciate the color guys.

Operator

Smedes Rose, Citi.

Nick Joseph

Thanks, it's, Nick Joseph here Meads. I was hoping you could, touch on your expectations for the Century casino lease, and I know it's a small part of rents overall, but do you feel comfortable that the recent CapEx investments that those properties will help improve coverage.

John Payne

Yeah, very good question. And I'm smiling here because we had part of our organization in the assets, actually two days ago visiting the assets, visiting with the teams, looking at the new construction, looking at the new casino that was put in place and talking about. the great numbers that are coming out of there.
In my opening remarks, one of the things that's great about VICI and the way that we're structured is that we have constant communication with our operator. We also get, for the majority of our operators, we get monthly results. We have conversations with them about how the business Is working, how they think about capital.
So Century is one of them, but you'd expect, or I think you'd hope that we're having conversations with our large operators in in MGM or or Hard Rock or others that we have assets with. But it is exciting to see that the new development we helped finance really take off down in in the Missouri properties and we'll continue to see if there's ways over time we can put money to work with, with Century as well as with some of our other operators.

Nick Joseph

Thanks and then I guess just one other partner, you didn't mention there was Caesars and obviously we've received some questions on the regional casinos and I know there's 10 years remaining on that lease but, how are those conversations going if they are, just given current coverage.

Edward Pitoniak

Yeah, Nick, good to hear from you. I wouldn't say there's any burning conversations of any kind between us and Caesars around regional property performance. We obviously continue to be pleased at the magnitude of capital that Caesars has been and continues to invest. In, our assets, both on the Las Vegas Strip and in the regions, you are obviously seeing, we're seeing the benefits in real time of the [300 odd million they put into New Orleans], John.
Obviously, a couple $100 million into Atlantic City, the recent announcement of $160 million of their capital into Lake Tahoe, we think is pretty strong evidence of Caesar's willingness to continue to invest in these properties and drive this kind of performance that ultimately should lead to rent coverage we're all happy and satisfied with.

Nick Joseph

Thank you very much.

Operator

David Katz, Jefferies.

David Katz

Hi, morning. Thanks for taking my questions. So with respect to the Red Rock arrangement. I don't know if you're able to sort of characterize what the capital structure of that property is setting up to be and or, any comments around pricing on the loan that that may be helpful and as a part of that bigger picture, how you look at opportunities and the risk profile of them relative to sort of where you were one, two, three years ago. Is it still the same, and is there some progression and kind of risk profile as you look at stuff today? Thanks.

David Kieske

Right in David. Good to talk to you. Let me, just start with the loan. ,As we've talked about the $725 million total facility comprised of two term loans, term on A and a term loan B are blended all in, yield is so for right around [7]. That includes some incremental fees and whatnot on the capital that we committed. The $725 million term loan will be the development funding for the project, and then we are comfortable with the capitalization and the support that's coming from Red Rock and their expertise around getting this open and really the location and you look at the competing product in the area it's far inferior to what the Durango-ii style facility that will be built here in (inaudible), California.
And in terms of our risk appetite, I think we continue as we talk about at VICI, we have a table of learning, we continue to learn internally and study different opportunities and as we've noted on this call, we've looked at tribal for years and partnering with the right operator in the right location and doing things with the right guarantees and right structure.
We get comfortable with that and the ultimate return that we earn on that capital that we deploy. So, I think, we spend a lot of time ensuring that we put our capital out in ways that makes sense, and as I talked about protecting the dividend, but also ensuring that we get that capital repaid.

Edward Pitoniak

Yeah, and I'll just add, David, that in investing in any category, but in particular in our investment category, general principles only take you so far. And so any kind of general principles we might hold about tribal gaming are just not that useful in us ultimately making investment decisions and we make investment decisions based entirely on specifics, not generalities, and the specifics of this investment opportunity were very compelling.
The involvement of a highly proven, highly successful developer that also happens to be a highly proven and highly successful operator. Those specifics were incredibly important to making this particular decision, and any future decisions we might make, whether around tribal or commercial will always again be made on the specifics.

David Katz

Thank you very much.

Operator

Haendel St. Juste, Mizuho

Haendel St Juste

Hey guys, good morning. I guess I'm curious if we should also be reading into the Red Rock construction loan that perhaps you'd be more comfortable being a construction lender more broadly under the right circumstances and with the right partner. So perhaps can you talk about your appetite and doing more of that type of loan activity going forward. And also some thoughts on the underwriting of the loan and the required return that you have there. Thanks.

Edward Pitoniak

Yeah, I would really reiterate, what I just said in response to David that it would be, it will always be highly specific. We do not have a general strategy around construction funding. We have a general strategy around relationship development and identifying experiential partners, we would like to have a relationship with them grow over time.
And if helping them finance a development opportunity is the way to start the relationship, we will certainly look at that energetic and yet rigorously. And you can see in both the cane and the Red Rock situations, we are being driven by the opportunity to establish relationships, and not really specifically being driven by a desire to become a construction financier.

Haendel St Juste

Appreciate that. And maybe, a follow up here just speaking of relationships. I'm curious if there any role for opportunities with any of your other partnerships that could be attractive to you here. Thank you.

John Payne

I didn't hear exactly the question, but I think that it was, are there opportunities to grow with our current set of 13 tenants and 8 financing partners. The answer I'll give you is I hope so. I think that's always been the way we have talked about this and why we don't have 100 tenants right now. We have 13 and I'm sure over time they'll grow to 14, 15, 16, but part of our strategy that we've talked about since we started the company was to find the best in the business and help them grow over time, while also adding new tenants as well as new financing partners to grow the business accretively.

Haendel St Juste

Thank you.

Operator

Daniel Guglielmo, Capital One Securities.

Daniel Guglielmo

Hi everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. The March and April trend commentary for your big public partners in Las Vegas has been very positive this earnings. Can you give us a sense if you're hearing the same things from the non-public partners on the strip, so I guess the Venetian complex and then maybe Fountain Blue in the investment (inaudible) .

John Payne

Yeah, we're very excited. Nice to talk to you, Daniel. We were very excited. Obviously, we see some of the numbers before they become public at times, and we're very excited to see Las Vegas continue to be quite successful and growing, as you heard in my comments. We like Vegas so much because there's so many different, what I call cash registers for and reasons for consumers to come to the city.
MGM and Caesars were talking about their business. The Venetian has a robust business. I was just out there myself and I know Ed was as well, enjoying our time at the sphere and watching how that brings in a whole bunch of new consumers to not only the Venetian, but really brings a new consumer set to Las Vegas, which is great to have a city like that.
So Daniel, the answer is Vegas seems to be continuing to have a very good run. Part of that, the credit goes to the operators because they continue to find different ways to attract not only their existing customers, but new and there's no better group than the group that runs Las Vegas. So we're excited to be so invested there owning those assets because I know that the people who do will continue to find ways, no matter what the economic conditions are to grow their business.

Daniel Guglielmo

Great, thank you. That's really helpful. And I did like your point on the the potential trade down, more people to Las Vegas. And then on the second one, so you all have a wide range of partners, John, I think you mentioned 21, both big and small with very different risk characteristics. And given the confusing macro, can you just talk about the team's approach to risk and if there's a formal risk process in place to to flag and work through any issues that you see developing over the next few years.Thank you.

Gabriel Wasserman

Yeah, hey Dan, it's Gab Wassman here. I can take the first part of that question, and others can weigh in as well, but since we founded the company in 2017, we've had a pretty rigorous risk management process. We meet, as a management team every quarter. There's two separate meetings. One is to go over the performance of our our tenants and our tenants and the lease investments and there's a separate meeting to go over our borrowers and the performance of our our loan investments. So, as a management team, a lot of visibility into the performance of our investments and a lot of discussions and rigorous underwriting and monitoring.

Daniel Guglielmo

Okay. Appreciate it.

Operator

Ronald Kamdem, Morgan Stanley.

Hey, good morning. This is Jenny on Ron. Thanks for taking my question. I think my first one is regarding the Caesar's Forum convention center call options you have later this year. What is your latest thoughts on the deal and if you would like to exercise on that?

John Payne

Yeah, very good question. That call becomes live here later in the fall. It's September of this year. I don't have the exact date, but I believe it's late September of this year. I think your question is, do we like the asset? Is it a, beautiful asset? How is it performing?
It is something that we'll continue to evaluate as that time comes. Caesars built just a beautiful place and is using it effectively as my last comments of driving new business and new meeting business there. So, we are aware of that opportunity. We've got a window that's quite wide and we'll study the opportunity that when it comes.

Perfect. (multiple speakers)
Yeah, go ahead, please.

Edward Pitoniak

Yeah, Jenny, I'll just, yeah, Jenny, I was just going to say before you ask your second question, that our decision making is always guided by solving for total return as I spoke of in my opening remarks. And as we look at the building blocks of our total return, those building blocks are dividend yield, same star NOI levered into AFFO per share, and then external growth.
And we try to optimize our timing around any kind of opportunities like that such that we are solving fundamentally for sustained and sustainable superior total return. So that really is the calculus that guides so much of our decision making around not only what we invest in, but when we invest in it.

Makes sense. I think the second one is regarding the strategic relationship with [Kane] International. I'm just curious if there's any incremental conversation this quarter with them, like what other kind of experiential investment opportunities are you looking to pursue together beyond the one Beverly Hills project?

Edward Pitoniak

Yeah, well, they are involved in a lot of experiential categories we are fundamentally interested in, and I will just cite one example, and that is their investment in a facility called the (inaudible) St. James, which is just outside of Washington DC and is very much like Chelsea Pierce.
They've been very open and energetic about their growth ambitions for the St. James as ultimately a network of facilities across the country and we've enjoyed very much the conversations we've had on, I must emphasize a very preliminary basis on how we might ever be of service to them in growing that network.

Okay, sounds great. Thanks so much.

Operator

Max Marsh, CBRE.

Max Marsh

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. With recently had a deal with Star in Australia, do you guys have interest in participating in that or maybe in Australia more broadly?

John Payne

If you've been following us for a while, David and I spent some time down under, about two years ago visiting Australia and New Zealand and understanding the landscape. Obviously the market in Australia, particularly where the assets are for the star has gone through radical change, not only structural balance sheet structural issues, but the regulators and the regulations of those businesses have changed. And I've had a real, put a real hurt, I guess is the best way on the business right now. I think your question was, would we be involved in an opportunity with the star-in-laws in, Australia, the answer is no.

Edward Pitoniak

Okay, I would say just to add. (multiple speakers) Yeah, sorry, Max, I was just going to add that really one key predicate for any investment we ever make is having as high a degree of visibility and confidence around what the future earnings profile of a given asset will be.
And right now, given the turmoil on the, in the regulatory landscape and its impact on the economic performance of gaming assets in Australia, it is very difficult to have any visibility or confidence around what kind of money these assets are going to make over the longer term.

Max Marsh

Understood. Thank you for that. And maybe zoom out and take it at a higher level. Other than economics and accretion could you talk about some of your top strategic priorities in your current opportunities set whether that might be tenant diversification, geographic diversification, or maybe something else?

Edward Pitoniak

I would say, there's really a couple of key result areas we really focus on. I've already talked about obviously our ceaseless dedication to building total return on a sustained and sustainable basis, but as well, it's obviously doing what we can, all we can to weatherproof the business as best we can. No business is obviously ever absolutely weatherproof, but I am so glad and so proud of the work David and the team did, for example, in getting the refinancing done when we got it done and against this backdrop of volatility and low visibility, a paramount focus of management will continue to be being highly anticipatory of what is potentially coming and being as ready for it as we can and protecting our capital and the cost of our capital.

Max Marsh

Great. Thank you very much.

Operator

[Alex Bacon], Baird.

Alex Bacon

Hey, good morning and thanks for taking my question. Just one quick one for me. There was some news, regarding, New York gaming. I'm curious what your latest thoughts on the New York gaming license processes and what we will be doing from now till a decisions ultimately made.

John Payne

Yeah, it's exciting times in some of the news that's out there. By no means am I going to predict when a license will be granted or the three licenses will be granted. It does seem like there's momentum moving for the RFPs to be put in by the end of June, early July. I think you know that one of the bidders is going to be MGM at the site that we own the real estate in the buildings.
There are other very exciting opportunities that are in the news that could win one of the licenses, but we are standing by better understanding the circumstances. Obviously we're a big fan of the MGM bid, simply because the asset is one that is ours and we would hope that we would help our current tenant at MGM grow that should they win one of the three licenses. So like you, we'll continue to watch and continue to read the paper and better understand as it gets closer.

Alex Bacon

Got it. That that's it for me. Thanks.

Operator

And I'll hand the floor back to Ed for some closing comments.

Edward Pitoniak

Yeah, so we know that all of you, whether you're analysts or investors are incredibly stretched in right now given the volume the company's reporting, so we cannot express deeply and offer our thanks for your time and attention this morning and your continued support, and bye for now.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you very much for your attendance. You may now disconnect your lines.