VICI Properties VICI is set to add another tenant to its portfolio through agreements related to Century Mile Racetrack and Century Downs Racetrack in Alberta, Canada. Century Casinos has agreed to sell the racetracks’ operating businesses to a subsidiary of Highfield Investment Group. VICI will continue to own the underlying real estate and enter into a new triple-net lease with the Highfield subsidiary.
The new Century Mile & Downs lease will carry initial annual base rent of C$10.7 million, or approximately US$7.5 million. It will have a 20-year initial term and four five-year renewal options. Rent will increase annually by the greater of 1.25% or Canadian CPI, capped at 2.5%. The lease will also require minimum annual capital expenditures equal to 1% of net revenues at each property.
At the same time, VICI will amend its existing Century Master Lease and reduce Century Casinos’ annual base rent by a corresponding C$10.7 million. As a result, VICI’s aggregate rent collection will remain unchanged, while the rent associated with the two properties will shift from Century Casinos to Highfield.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Upon closing, Highfield will become VICI’s 17th tenant, further expanding the REIT's tenant roster.
That diversification has already accelerated in 2026. VICI added Clairvest, Golden Entertainment and Club Med in the second quarter of 2026, taking its tenant count to 16 at June-end. Its portfolio had 100% occupancy and a 39.6-year weighted average lease term, while 77% of rent came from publicly traded tenants.
Overall, the Highfield agreement looks more like a tenant reshuffling than a rent-growth deal, but it strengthens VICI’s diversification without reducing aggregate rent. This matters because Caesars and MGM still represented 38% and 32%, respectively, of annualized contractual rent as of Sept. 1, 2026, while Century Casinos accounted for only about 2%.
Over the past month, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company’s shares have fallen 9.6% compared with the industry’s decrease of 4.4%.
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Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks from the broader REIT sector are Extra Space Storage EXR and OUTFRONT Media OUT, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for EXR’s 2026 FFO per share is pegged at $8.32, which indicates year-over-year growth of 1.3%.
The consensus estimate for OUT’s full-year FFO per share is pinned at $2.32, which calls for a 16.6% increase from the year-ago period.
Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO) — a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).