Los Angeles Business Journal: City change - Investments & Finance

Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. will move its headquarters to Las Vegas to be closer to the gaming industry capital.

Pinnacle, the gaming company formerly known as Hollywood Park Inc., has employees in its Glendale headquarters, about half of which will be let go, according to Wade Hundley, the company's chief operating officer.

"We found ourselves routinely in Las Vegas meeting with various consultants and gaming analysts, and it became evident that's where the corporate headquarters ought to be," he said.

Pinnacle signed a lease for 9,000 square feet off of the Vegas strip and estimated the cost of the move -- including severance payments and the cost of terminating the company's current lease -- at between $1 million and $2 million.

Pinnacle, which does not currently have any business operations in Las Vegas, owns seven casinos in Nevada, Mississippi, Louisiana, Indiana and Argentina and is the landlord to two local card clubs, Hollywood Park in Inglewood and Crystal Park in Compton.

The company's longtime chairman, R.D. Hubbard, and former Chief Executive Paul Alanis resigned from Pinnacle in April as part of an agreement with the Indiana Gaming Commission after the company was accused of securing prostitutes for high rollers attending a golfing event at its Indiana hotel and casino, Belterra. Hubbard was also forced to sell his 9.6 percent stake, worth more than $23 million at the time of his resignation.