THE BIG STORY:
16 months later, CityCenter has yet to hit its stride
As spectacular as CityCenter is, it has become Las Vegas’ Tower of Babel—serving as a symbol of what could go wrong.
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Monday
25 April 2011
3 a.m.
Archives
- Vdara market at CityCenter caters to guests’ evolving appetites (3-8-2011)
- CityCenter hopes new signage brings more traffic" (3-1-2011)
- Design challenges leave passers-by passing CityCenter by (11-28-2010)
- High-rise condo sales at CityCenter a mixed bag (11-12-2010)
- CityCenter condo closings slow in down economy (5-28-2010)
- CityCenter hotels’ features at your fingertips (4-5-2010)
- CityCenter condos may outperform market (2-5-2010)
- Welcome to CityCenter: New Strip casino opens its doors (12-16-2009)
- CityCenter unveils financing program for condo buyers (12-9-2009)
Special Coverage
Architectural Scenes of CityCenter
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del.icio.usCome along on a tour of the angular buildings, vibrant colors and reflective facades that make CityCenter's architecture uniquely world-renowned.
It’s a big celebration that is quintessentially Las Vegas.
I discovered upon moving here from Southern California in 2005 a casino opening is part birthday party, movie premiere and New Year’s Eve all rolled into one. Locals even have a childlike anticipation as if they’re waiting impatiently to see what they’re going to unwrap on Christmas Day, hoping it’s the shiny new toy they always wanted.
That’s how I looked at it when I attended the December 2009 gala opening of CityCenter’s Aria. It was going to be one of the biggest openings ever in Las Vegas and the place to be.
That’s a long way from when then-MGM Mirage understatedly announced in a November 2004 news release its plans to build a multibillion-dollar “urban metropolis” of hotels and condominium towers on 66 acres. At the time, CityCenter was projected to cost about $4 billion for the 4,000-room hotel with a casino, three boutique hotels, 550,000 square feet of retail shops and 1,650 condominium units. The plan called for the creation of more than 7,000 construction jobs and 12,000 permanent jobs when it was completed. That city-in-a-city dubbed “Project CityCenter” was about to be unwrapped.
Entering the complex for the first time that night didn’t disappoint. The scope of the project and architecture of CityCenter was undeniably impressive. Could it live up to its hype?
Many had expected it to be the crowning achievement on the Vegas Strip that would reset the center of one of the most famous streets in the world. It was called a sign of what’s to come and the cherry on top of Las Vegas’ sundae in a community that thought the good times would never end.
More than two years later, as spectacular as CityCenter is, it has become Las Vegas’ Tower of Babel—serving as a symbol of what could go wrong.
It says more about the mentality of Las Vegas and why the city has felt the recession like no other metropolis in America.
This story is about the hubris of Las Vegas itself—that the good times will never end and snake eyes will never be rolled on the craps table. Wall Street was willing to invest in Las Vegas and whatever shiny casino it built—the attitude was more people will come to gamble. The mentality has been “who needs diversification when you have the casino industry leading the way?”
When CityCenter was announced, Bill Thompson, a UNLV professor who specializes in gaming, said the psychology of the Las Vegas gaming industry was to grow and grow until it busts. The city and casino industry have the spirit of the gambler, and that’s not easily overcome. He turned out to be a prophet.
“Our spirit is to keep growing—to always look to the future,” Thompson says. “Our survival is tied to what the gambler calls his bankroll—staying power for the times when bets go bad. Now that may be questioned. CityCenter was trying to do too much.”
Las Vegas is nothing if not resilient and over time will rebound economically, and many fully expect CityCenter to ultimately live up to much of its much-hyped potential.
Years from now people will only see what’s in place and not the back story of how it brought a casino giant to its financial knees; how it didn’t bring about the immediate growth in jobs and tourism that many expected and instead cut into other casinos’ profits and their employment.
When you take on the largest private construction project in U.S. history, resources, personnel and oversight get stretched to their limits. Six construction workers died in 2007 and 2008, and workers even walked off the job for most of one day to protest safety practices of Perini Building Co.
Construction defects halted work on the Harmon hotel with work done on just 27 of its planned 47 stories. It faces demolition once litigation is resolved, and its only use is a place to put signage to direct people to CityCenter.
No one could envision any of this in November 2004 when MGM billed CityCenter as a departure from the usual adult playground. It was called the next evolution of Las Vegas. The final cost of the project was $8.5 billion.
Despite MGM bringing in Dubai World as a 50-50 partner in CityCenter in 2007, it came close to filing for bankruptcy protection in March 2009 when it made a $200 million equity payment to keep the project going.
The CityCenter team can’t be totally faulted for initiating such an ambitious project during the boom, observers say. The Vegas brand was extremely popular and a flood of capital was flowing into real estate across the country, especially Southern Nevada. And few anticipated the depth and breadth of the Great Recession. At the same time, the Las Vegas housing and commercial markets were being overbuilt.
Some suggest still that if CityCenter would have been built in phases instead of all at once, and just focused on the casino and hotel, it would have turned out better.
“It still amazes me the intensity of the hubris that took hold in between 2000 and 2006 when many believed that we’d really Manhattanize Las Vegas,” says John Restrepo, a principal at Restrepo Consulting. “I assume if MGM could go back in time, knowing what it knows today, it wouldn’t have made the high-rise residential component such a major part of CityCenter.”
During its announcement, MGM had billed CityCenter as more potentially profitable than a typical megaresort in part because money raised from about $1 billion in sales of Manhattan-style high-rise condominium units would help offset the project’s debt.
With the condominium market in the tank, MGM in 2009 discounted its high-rise units by 30 percent and even then could only close on about 450 of the 2,387 it had on the market or one third of the 1,300 it had under contract.
In a city with an abundance of hotel rooms, the desire for condominium living hasn’t panned out. The desire for condominiums has traditionally been in high-density markets with panoramic water views and high incomes.
“Many in the community actually believed we could manufacture Manhattan-style living in the middle of the desert. Well, we manufactured replicas of New York, Paris, Venice and other locales,” Restrepo says. “So we couldn’t also manufacture high-rise living on a large scale here as well. At one point, there were tens of thousands of high-rise units on the drawing boards. It was just completely overblown. That large-scale high-density living only happens organically over a long period of time was looked at as old-school thinking. We were able to convince ourselves that the Strip at night, with all its colors and lights, was the same as water views.”
Did CityCenter create a city within a city as was billed? Despite all the challenges facing CityCenter, many see it setting in a positive light a new standard for design and amenities that will be considered by future resort developers in Las Vegas and other markets.
The architecture is stunning with renowned architects Daniel Libeskind, and Rafael Vinoly and Cesar Pelli, but not everyone sees it that way.
“Hats off for them trying to create the next generation of Las Vegas,” says David Edelstein, president of TriStar Capital, owner of the Miracle Mile Shops across the street from CityCenter at Planet Hollywood. “I salute their vision, but this isn’t what Vegas is about. Are you trying to create something that doesn’t fit with why people come here? People come here to leave all that high-rise stuff behind and that formality behind and uber-architecture behind, to have fun and not take things so damn seriously.”
The project has 1,200 feet of Strip frontage, but even tourists and residents didn’t know where CityCenter began when Cosmopolitan opened in December.
It isn’t the most accessible for people walking along the Strip. The addition of the building wrap on the Harmon has letters and arrows pointing out where Aria and Crystals are. Crystals feels more like a museum than a retail center. It lacks energy you feel at the Forum Shops and other resorts with retail centers, and its high-end retailers leave many people window-shopping at best.
“Even if you take that, they went beyond that,” Edelstein said. “They took Madison Avenue, Rodeo Drive and Champs-Élysées to the highest-end retailers and put them in the Guggenheim Museum. It’s not a shopping experience. It’s a visual architecture experience.”
Even months before it opened, Las Vegans were still hoping CityCenter would be the panacea that softened the blow of the recession that led to fewer tourists spending less money and casinos cutting jobs.
But as the opening approached, economists at UNLV dismissed suggestions that CityCenter’s opening would boost the economy, as had been the history of resort openings with the excitement and increase in room demand.
They said CityCenter wouldn’t boost the local economy, that its profits would come at the expense of other properties by lowering room rates with increased competition—and that appears to be the case. Many analysts aren’t expecting another casino to be built in Las Vegas for at least a decade.
Restrepo says the story of CityCenter symbolizes the view of Las Vegas as immune to the laws of economics because it sustained itself during other recessions and people kept coming and spending. He jokingly paraphrased economist John Maynard Keynes that everything works out over the long term.
“It’s still a marquee project. Like all other projects, you have to judge CityCenter over time,” Restrepo says. “We haven’t seen its ultimate impact changing the face of Las Vegas. We can’t grade it fairly until we get through the recession.”
So, has Las Vegas learned anything in this recession? Is hubris still in vogue?
“Often times it takes going through a trauma to take you to the next level,” Restrepo says. “Pittsburgh went through it with the steel industry and it happened to the textile industry in the South. New York City went bankrupt in the 1970s and even Boston redid itself with high technology. It takes a crisis to rethink the future and lose some of that hubris.”
Long term, I believe Las Vegas will be served by the construction of CityCenter. Like the Mirage, Caesars Palace, Bellagio and other megaresorts, an ever-increasing number of worldwide gamblers will be lured to this still great city to experience what’s inside.
And with one of the best locations on the Strip, what are now empty condominiums will eventually be bought and occupied. No condominium development tops it for what it has downstairs, and it’s a place I would live without hesitation. In a heartbeat.
But if CityCenter also serves as a monument that helps Las Vegas learn to keep its ego in check and take a path that leaves it less vulnerable to future recessions and real estate downturns, then that just may be its most important lasting legacy.
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Who cares: I been there twice, not impressed, very hard to walk around, got lost looking for areas, a lot of areas not finish with construction, no signs, or some signs not helpful. I notice many tourist who walk the LV BLVD, just walk by not stopping.
IFM, our impression to a T. We also are people that don't feel that we have to be awed and amazed. Just give us good quality and service. We will be back. We remember those items much more than an architectual design.
$9 billion and they have to put arrows on the side of the most failed part of the project to tell people where it is. Amazing....
They need to have more art exhibits like the stuff this guy is making, check it out it's awesome.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...
I've never stepped foot on the property and really have no immediate desire to do so any time soon.
i cant believe people actually think vegas will bounce back to the good old days; its all over and here is the reason why.
Buck Wargo, your opinion and this article remains short sighted and lacks all the positives about City Center. The recession was ticks aways from delivering a total collapse to the US economy. There were many projects in progress before the recession, MGM made a bold decision to complete City Center. If not for City Center opening, the Las Vegas economy would be much, much worse. The jobs created by City Center contributed in a huge way to the Las Vegas valley. Jobs, jobs paying people reasonable wages, allowing employees to pay their bills, extending to many small business, and not to mention helped many people on the verge of financial ruin to recover and maintain while the enconomy gets better.
Steve Wynn and Harrah's invested more to counter City Center. No need to invest if City Center had not raise the bar in marketing to the higher end gambler. And what about Cosmopolitan? The Cosmopolitan would not be opened if not for City Center. There again, more jobs, helping the Las Vegas economy. Why? Because of City Center. Just once, Las Vegas residents would to like to read about the positive actions and results from casino operators who are taking high risk to redefine Las Vegas during the worse to times.
City Center, the MGM management, Steve Wynn, and Harrah's may not do it the way some would like. To bad, anytime anyone can create thousands of jobs for Las Vegas residents, that is success my friend. Let the casino operators run the casinos, do your homework when it comes to reporting on the industry that drives the Las Vegas enconomy.
vegas will never, ever return to the 2000 - 2005 era.
Architectural monstrosity that can't draw flies...
Who seriously thought this was gonna work?
It was finished because it made financial sense to
certain people that it be finished...certainly not because
anyone was naive enough to believe that it was going to
be a smashing success, given what every single economic
indicator was telling them.
How long can this giant, looming wreck of metal & glass angles be subsidized by it's "owners", before the weight of it's debt topples the thing like a cheap erector set?
@Longtimevegan:
MGM management had no other option but to open City Center whether it failed or not. Let's not get over our heads here and try to credit them of "saving" Las Vegas.
This article should be subtitled, "Hindsight Is 20/20." The article says mostly what everyone already knows - MGM's poor vision has put them in a financial strait jacket.
But included are a couple of comments that go unsubstantiated:
"Las Vegas is nothing if not resilient and over time will rebound economically, and many fully expect CityCenter to ultimately live up to much of its much-hyped potential."
"And with one of the best locations on the Strip, what are now empty condominiums will eventually be bought and occupied."
Oh, really? Just when do you expect this to happen, Buck? What information or data could you provide us that backs up your claims?
Although the author is correct in that Crystals is more museum like, what high end shopping area is not? Many people do indeed walk down Rodeo Drive, but they don't go into the stores. What City Center can do is to soften Crystals, make it more social, more retail friendly. I do not think City Center is a white elephant, but the setback for Aria from the Strip will not help the casino at all. The story also fails to mention Cosmopolitan (save for a one line reference) and the impact that has had on City Center. While attracting a different demographic, Cosmo has become the "hip" place and takes business away from City Center due to location more than demographic. Cosmo is hurting Venetian, Caesars if anything. There are other problems with City Center that can be corrected. The Elvis Show is not the show those shopping at Crystals will want to see. This was the worst mistake of all. Due to the setback of Aria, a must see show with a legend like talent must be installed. Someone of the calibre of Celine would make it.
While the article is great, it only harps on the same thing everyone already knows: City Center is not what everyone hoped. What we don't know are the Y-T-D financials of the retailers and how they compare to stores across their brand. Perhaps the high end retailers are selling enough to satisfy their investors. We can't keep singing our shoulda, coulda, woulda's. Saying: if City Center hadn't opened, the economy would be much worse- who can predict such things? It's futile to even consider the alternatives. We can only work with what we have and go from there. But, the author should have backed up the story with more numbers and less quotes from Restrepo Consulting. The numbers never lie, but people often do.
The genius of launching the largest of its kind project in the World, and concomitantly something entirely new to Las Vegas is SPECTACULARLY BRAVE....or ?????? Las Vegas had/has a recipe which performed well: themed casinos/lodging/entertainment. City Center is Tokyo, Singapore, or wherever you seek cold glass/steel hi-rises in abundance. What spawned such a ludicrous out-of-the-box signal to "GO" down that architectural path? Were there any peer reviews or marketing surveys before committing $4.5B which grew to $8.5B? Of course not. Why, in the name of accountability, are the principals whose names we know so well still sitting prominently in the management halls of MGM?
The Harmon debacle; the entirely surreal Crystal's; the glut of condos; the unimpressive entry and spaghetti driveways; the sterility of Vdara's reception area.....these are but a few of the sad and wasted potentials which should have been MGM's future. Rather, I say, our future which was wasted indeed by hubris. In the 21st Century accountability is awol.
I'm sure the professionals told CEO Murren that Manhattan shouldn't be recreated on the Strip in a serious effort - unlike the kitsch of NYNY. But if you go to MGM's corporate website and look at interviews with Murren, he said he and his wife wanted to bring Manhattan to Las Vegas because they missed New York. How's that for ego, arrogance and chutzpah? MGM Mirage at the time, and maybe still as MGM Resorts International, were chicken s*** to tell him he was crazy.
The writer of this article says:
"The CityCenter team can't be totally faulted for initiating such an ambitious project during the boom..." "The Vegas brand was extremely popular and a flood of capital was flowing into real estate .... And few anticipated the depth and breadth of the Great Recession ... while the Las Vegas housing and commercial markets were being overbuilt."
David Edelstein is right: "I salute their vision, but this isn't what Vegas is about."
When you build ANYTHING - especially in a desert turned tourist attraction - , you MUST consider its location, affected markets and trends, demand, potential customer-base, cost of construction vs. operation, and how you will achieve your projected earnings.
I would think such INNOVATIVE THINKING and PLANNING would have been part of building the AUDICIOUS CitiCenter, unless they thought - as Las Vegas has claimed for years - just "BUILD IT, AND THEY WILL COME." That mantra is a recipe for disaster.
I believe the CitiCenter "planners" ignored forecasts about our future national economic health and financial trends - of which, many would suggest warranted more caution in building. And it would be prudent to be more conservative in projects that would cost $8.5 billion dollars (which is now $13 billion).
The many rumblings of nation-wide financial forecasters - as to the sustainablilty and growth of Las Vegas (and national) real estate markets - presented concerns and predictions of an eventual TURN-DOWN in the U.S. economy. Well, it happened.
And I am not convinced that such HIGH RISK factors were ever considered by MGM - or their creditors - as important to making business decisions, or in "WHAT IF" discussions. There was just this RUSH to build in Las Vegas.
Casinos use the word Volatility to describe the affect of probability in winning or losing in "GAMES OF CHANCE" also know as: GAMBLING.
Volatility is mathematically UNCONTROLLABLE (but legal) effect in GAMBLING activites, and can make a gambling "proposition" very risky - thus, the reason for ODDS assigned to a specific game.
This Volatility affects casino cash-flow in a positive or negative manner.
So why wouldn't MGM casino executives and its builders and lenders consider similar Volatility factors for construction costs, and make realistic projections of the probability (Risk Analysis) of CitiCenter producing the needed level of cash-flow and profits?
IT SEEMS NO ONE was listening to the alarmist predictions of financial forecasters, including the vast majority of the nation. Everyone in the nation was on a "roll" - including MGM CitiCenter. It seems it would be harder to get a loan to build a house than it was to finance the building of CitiCenter.
I guess HUBRIS works!
But when you spend your stock holders money, you should give them something that will pay a profit. For CitiCenter failing to produce such a result, MGM is at fault.
I think this is a well written article, even though the majority of information is already generally known. Like the columnist, I believe CityCenter will come into its own... in time (how much time requires a SWAG (a Scientific Wild-Ass Guess)). One of the major drawbacks (and there are quite a few) is highlighted in the article; vacationers/visitors do not go to Vegas to experience the architecture or ambiance of Metropolis, USA. If anything, they (we) are escaping Metropolis to become Alice/Allen in Wonderland and/or Disneyland and/or Have-All-The-Fun-You-Want-land.
Although I agree somewhat with the comments of 'smokinjoe17', I yet find CityCenter interesting. I've only visited the place twice (Aria, in particular) and did enjoy myself in gaming and sightseeing. Access to the area was relatively simple from the Monte Carlo (where I lodged) but access from the Strip is a little "uninviting". I will visit the place again but it will probably not be on my "Favorite Places" list. I wish the CityCenter much, much success and hope that this project will be a well-learned lesson. After all, Las Vegas is still my ultimate, favorite place to vacation. Even with its recently acquired flaws (imploding Stardust being one), Vegas is yet an incomparable gaming/dining/lodging/entertainment adventure.
@brentmydland...
"I've never stepped foot on the property and really have no immediate desire to do so any time soon."
There you go.
My sentiments EXACTLY.
"The Next Big Thing", and people DO NOT EVEN CARE TO ENTER IT.
When was the last great Casino/Hotel that could make that claim?
I have stayed at the Aria twice, nice hotel but the CityCenter sucks. Everything is cement grey, the entrance ramp is like an old parking garage ramp. No color anywhere. I understand muted colors are supposed to be sophisticated but cement is cement! After you've gone to your room and rested a bit, if you would like to see any of the other hotels or casinos finding them is almost impossible, where are the signs? . No doubt this is designed so you have wander around, give up and plunk your bucks down where ever but that only presupposes you find any place worth plunking then down. Crytals? What's the point? Massive spaces, difficult to get from the 2rd(?)floor to the 1st(?) floor and what's there when you do? Great Architecture? Hardly - just over powering glass walls with no purpose. Would you take a minute and admire the buildings like you do at the Bellagio, Venetian or even Paris? What's to admire? Grey concrete and glass, HOT grey concrete and glass. Last but not least what is that canoe monstrosity? It is so out of place. Tear down one of the buildgings and put is a walking space with trees, flowers and shade. Let's face the emperor has no clothes.
All you experts on the Las Vegas economy talking about---Las Vegas. All you experts are making judgement after all is done. Just like the many comments on the other Las Vegas projects---you were wrong!
You all said Steve Wynn wouldn't general the daily revenue needed to service the Mirage. You all said Treasure Island wouldn't work being so close to the Mirage. You all said the Luxor design would drive business away. You all said NY NY wouldn't work. You all said Steve Wynn Encore was too much and wouldn't general the necessary revenue. You all said Sheldon wouldn't make it. There places and more are open and doing business. However, the negative talk and second guesting by the so called experts goes on and on and on.
This is Last Vegas, Nevada. The best gaming experience in the world. Youth look forward to the day of 21 to visit Las Vegas. City Center is a major player in the casino industry, Many can throw stones at the project, but you cannot deny that City Center is a major reason the Las Vegas economy is on the road to recovery.
Bottom line, City Center will succeed. Many other businesses are inter-connected to the success of City Center, just ask Dusetche Bank and the employees at Cosmopolitan. The fact is, City Center is directly responsible for over 13,000 jobs for Las Vegas residents. That is fact, this is success. Want to bet?
Longtime...really? "Many can throw stones at the project, but you cannot deny that City Center is a major reason the Las Vegas economy is on the road to recovery."
It hasn't made a dime. How does that help the recovery? How many of their initial team were put back out on the street because the thing wasn't making enough money to support them? How many contractors are still in the red because MGM still hasn't paid them for the work done on CC? You talk about facts and yet you don't provide any. It's clear you work for them, which is even the more embarrassing for your grammar and typos.
The only thing you say that I would agree with is that this is a 21-year old's paradise. Las Vegas is just as sleezy and tacky as Cancun, Cabo or Daytona. You built someone's idea of Manhattan and yet the demographic that has been drawn by "What Happens in Vegas..." doesn't fit. MGM was way off base. Support your argument with numbers and facts besides the opening of Cosmo, which is owned by one of the world's largest and most powerful banks - a bank which is still looking for a buyer as banks don't run casinos. How many people are actually residing in the Veer Towers, eh? The Harmon is a complete embarrassment and stands there just as empty and vapid as the minds behind CityCenter.
The other projects you mentioned of the 1990s were funded and completed and drew tourists as they were unique. There is nothing unique about CC. It looks like a hospital campus in some post-apocalyptic b-movie.
It's a failure. It was a bad idea. No one particularly likes it and it's not doing diddly for our economy or the recovery of the city. Get over it. The next time you bother to take up space here give specifics on how EXACTLY this thing is helping the city because every statistic completely contradicts you. Prove ME wrong loudmouth.
Emotions and facts, do not mix. Stop hating, embrace the facts. Remove City Center and Cosomopolitan and the Las Vegas unemployement rate is over 15% (actual would be higher). Facts are facts, 13,000 job created by City Center, because of City Center.
Investment on the Las Vegas Strip by the major companies has increased because of City Center. Facts my friends, facts, progress, and contributing to the economic recovery in Las Vegas. Facts. Nothing but the fact. Thank You.
No my friend "sporty" I work for another company that many of you did not hold with high regard. I work at a place that drives the vision of Las Vegas. I understand what Las Vegas is about very well. My arugment is about success of individuals which translates in success for Las Vegas. Every major project has many flaws that require improvements and in many cases a rebuild inside. The point is, Las Vegas is the Red Wood of the hospitiality industry, a Sequoia. City Center may not be what you expect or what you wanted. City Center is a success to many, and directly responsbile for 13,000 jobs in Las Vegas. Facts!
By the way, you are correct about my grammar within the post. Frankly, I think I'm doing pretty good with one hand using voice recognition. Stay positive my friend.
When City Center was designed, MGM thought it could capture and hold a certain segment of very wealthy gamblers who wanted to be insulated from the rest of the Strip. That is why it is inaccessible to foot traffic from LV Blvd. How'd that work out?
No one ever noticed this little bit of hubris which is now coming back to haunt the project. It was as anti-local as anything could get. They not only didn't want locals, but they didn't want people walking by from the mass-market and dropping in. It was by and for a specific demographic that didn't want any association with the mob, the little people, the poor, huddled masses.
Yes, CC is a monument to excess and hubris. It's not even that pretty. Those of us who saw it for what it was are laughing at the failure. Epic fail. Man plans; God laughs. Might as well put it on a sign that says "Welcome to Vegas."
ED Note: Writer intentionally used Vegas instead of Las Vegas because the abbreviation symbolizes the whole mindset of what the city thought of itself and marketed to the world, and in the opinion of the author is all we ever had to sell in the first place and will eventually be what brings the sheeple back.
Citycenter is over the top.
Went there once and see no reason to go back.
The Strip got ruined to the extent that CC is there, IMO.
@ Longtimevegan:
You say: "Remove City Center and Cosomopolitan and the Las Vegas unemployement rate is over 15% (actual would be higher). Facts are facts, 13,000 job created by City Center, because of City Center."
Here is a news flash for you:
As for the 13,000 employees at CitiCenter that you believe are "saving" las Vegas - - are you kidding me? There are about 78 hotel/casinos on the Strip, and THEY EMPLOY about 247,000 (leisure and hospitality) workers. So it looks like you re giving CitiCenter more credit than it deserves - for anything. They have NOT delivered on their potential.
I have been coming to, and living in, Las Vegas for over 35 years, and have seen HUGE success stories in the hotels and casinos Las Vegas' operators have built. Places that draw the most visitors, and are the most profitable - such as: Caesars Palace, WYNN, Belliago, MGM Grand, Venetian, Ballys, and others.
Las Vegas has many of the most beautiful, and warded (for design) hotels in the world. They are people-friendly too. For instance, almost all of them are built with their entrances at street level - a must to draw walk-by pedestrian traffic. This is as opposed to the "hike" one must take to get to CitiCenter's casino or hotel.
While there is no denying that CitiCenter has a few very nice art works and design patterns to it - still, THIS IS NOT "LAS VEGAS".
The history of success in Las Vegas' is shown by, and built on, WHAT WORKS; NOT what someone (MGM's Jim M. - formerly from Wall Street) wants to change it to. They are built for "fun," entertainment, and excitement; to be bright, alluring, and attractive. The designs maket their appeal - and promote "customer satisfaction." Not to hype some buildings.
The CitiCenter Casino looks like a football field long, dark, and unappealing "basement." Its steel and glass exterior has no obvious or meaningful design intent - except perhaps, to be "Avant Guard." (and thus, try to attract younger people? Do they have all the money?)
So the result is an AUDACIOUS "New York style business center;" not a place for fun. And certainly, not a contributor to the Las Vegas economy (yet, anyway).
The U.S. Government could open up a Las Vegas office, hire 13,000 people, and have a similar impact on the economy - just from the receipt of tax revenues - and without spending $13 Billion to do so.
The $8.5 in construction costs - and the total $13 Billion in debt obligations, that CitiiCenter has amassed is what will hold them back from making a profit - and possibily from earning enough to make the payments on their financial obligations (which they have almost missed on several occasions, while also bordering on bankruptcy).
SO WHEN AND WHERE WILL THE PROFITS COME FROM?
I suggest you rethink your enthusiastic remarks in light of the new "facts" I have presented.
When I visted Vegas in Jan, it was cold and windy, making that long cc entrance even more long, cold and uninviting. Slipped right into Cosmo front door. CC entrance looks like a driveway for service trucks. I live 20 miles from NYC, why would I have any interest in flying 2500 miles for more glass and steel? The billions of profit crushing debt aside, cc is destined to fail on poorly conceived vision alone!
Put in a semi covered moving walkway for pedestrians. You could have misting machines in the summer and overhead heaters in the winter. They have to get tourists off the strip. Time for managment to adapt! Vinyl wraps on Harmon? Are you kidding me? How dumb are these people?
Inkwell,
Your misguided my friend. You and others are focused using your limited understanding of how Las Vegas works and has worked. I could give several indictors that say just the opposite of your assessment. Why should I provide you or any of the non-believers with additional information, you are too emotionally attached and you do not have the right information. I give facts, you come back with emotion, foaming at the mouth and shouting. The executives people the casinos are not hyperventilating, why are you? You apparently do not have access to information that can change your opinon on City Center or any project in Las Vegas you do not agree with. I give you this, the numbers you have posted are correct, the $8.5 billion in cost and the $13.0 billion in overall debt, but everyone has these numbers. How are you measuring growth? By stock price? Quarterly reports? Wall Street? If your an investor, and you purchased stock, your in a very bad situation my friend.
Las Vegas is on the road to recovery because of properties like Wynn, Encore, Palazzo, Cosmopolitan, Station Casinos, and City Center. You see, they hire people, people working means success for Las Vegas. The numbers are there, City Center has helped Las Vegas. City Center is directly responsible for creating 13,000 jobs. City Center has provided support to the Las Vegas economy. Las Vegas is recovering from the recession because City Center is open. That's the facts my friend. Nothing but, the facts. Thanks for the response. Stay positive my friend.
@Longtimevegan
Sorry to correct you and tell you that you are misguided like so many others here in Vegas. The matter of fact is, City Center has NOT created 13,000 new jobs for employes. MGM Management and some of the politicians wished they had for the usual election purposes.
Approximately 8,000 people from City Center were recruited from other MGM properties here in town to downsize and not and never replace them. Practically and unarguably City Center has maybe generated 3,000 employment opportunities at best. Not considering the layoffs right after the opening and the systematic downsizing in staff since the economic crisis here in Vegas.
Now whether City Center is helping Las Vegas or not will be written in the stars and the future or the pockets and breath of MGM will tell how long they can mask, tarnish and write off the real numbers of the project until reality will push them again at the brink of bankruptcy! If you read between the lines of any comment Jim Murren is making, it is nothing but a facade and sweet talk to keep the stock stable until the next release of disastrous numbers is flocking in. Desperate to raise cash through a pending IPO in Hong Kong to float the sinking ship!
Franz,
Your wrong! You clearly do not have accurate information, or your not doing your homework, or you are not looking or not seeing the whole employment picture of the Las Vegas gaming industry.
First let's take your numbers of 8,000 jobs created by City Center...Your following this? Now take 5,000 jobs at the Cosomopolitan (right next door)...how many jobs is that? Right, 13,000 jobs my friend. Jobs directly attributed to City Center being opened. The facts are clear, if City Center were not opened, Cosomopolitan would not be opened. This is no secert. Facts are facts, you cannot change the facts. City Center is directly responsible for 13,000 jobs here in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thank you for your response. Stay positive my friend.
....To Franz,
To follow-up on you comments that 8,000 employees were recruited from other MGM properties for City Center. This is not accurate, you are wrong. Your are also wrong on the 3,000 job number. Many emotionally charged comments posted on the this article. There are good objective comments, but the majority are personal and emotional. Which says many have been adversely affected the economic conditions in Las Vegas. There are bright spots here and there. I prefer to point out the positive, the fact we have employers hiring people who need and want jobs. This is the first step for recovery at any level. City Center or any project that is hiring a Las Vegan is a success. A success to the individual and to Las Vegas. Slow as it may be, success by degrees is still success.
The larger picture of success coming from any project in Las Vegas is, hiring, sustained staffing and flexibility, visitor count, revenue vs cost, marketing, product value and offerings. The Las Vegas gaming industry is aware of the core drivers of revenue. However, Las Vegas is falling short on long term sustainable growth and the vision. What Las Vegas does well is react to situations and conditions. Some say we need a new Steve Wynn type on steriods---visionary and action wise only, please :)
The growth of Las Vegas during the 1980 into late 1990 was fueled by many factors. The customer base that will drive Las Vegas into the next growth period is coming to Las Vegas now, visiting our city everyday. We have to do a better job of motivating this base to spend more.
Well maybe it is me who is on a loss here but please explain. If MGM prior to the opening of City Center terminated people to rehire some of them once City Center is opening and then move people from their properties into City Center and do not refill or replace these jobs, how does this create 13,000 new jobs in Las Vegas?
I am not arguing Cosmo, no question that it has created jobs!
If you have a headcount of employees of MGM prior to the opening of City Center and after the opening, you will see that they have not added 8,000 people! Not even 500 to tell you the truth!
Now I agree that under a circumstance without a City Center and the downfall of the economy, the current situation in Las Vegas would be way worse! We might have 13,000 people more without a job! But this is a different scenario!
Franz,
If your not willing to do inquiries to credible sources you will continue to limit your information.