While walking through Central Park on a brisk fall morning in 2020, Apollo Global Management Partner David Sambur took a call from a financial representative who was tasked by Las Vegas Sands Corp. with selling the company’s Strip properties.

Sambur, who oversees Apollo’s private equity strategy and played a chief role in several gaming industry acquisitions and investments for the New York City-based firm, was intrigued by the initial phone conversation and subsequent follow-up discussions.

“I thought it was really interesting, but questioned how they could make it happen,” Sambur told The Nevada Independent in an interview last week. “We got to work trying to figure out how we could buy this iconic property in the middle of the COVID pandemic with financial markets essentially shut.”