Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

I must be getting old, I feel like I need a hearing aid to hear this. I'll check this out, and report back, if I feel there is something worth discussing.

Well, looks like Danny Gains will have company to share his new theater with. Steve pretty much said in this interview, that Danny will run 4 shows a week, and other big names will fill in on other days. That's kind of exciting.

Be sure to pick up the new issue of Forbes magazine to read a little into the future plans of Stations Casinos. Presenting... VIVA! A multi-casino / condo / arena project on 110 acres behind the Panorama Towers off the strip. Project may break the 10 billion dollar mark! Guess we will see if it is a dream or reality!

G

Maybe I'm late to the show here, but www.encorelasvegas.com has gone live and has a interest form to fill out.

The Forbes article on the Fertitta brothers and UFC is online. I never realized UFC was so huge.
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0505/080_print.html

I wonder how long it will be before Station is actually able to get going on Viva.

Posted by Mark D

Ten billion bucks would make Viva the largest privately funded construction project in U.S. history. Actually, this project has been on the back-burner for several years and has gone through a number of redesigns.

Posted by Mark D

Grand Central Hotel -northeast corner of Charleston Blvd and Grand Central Parkway, 700-feet tall, 61-stories, 2,500 rooms, 260,000 square foot convention center.
http://www5.lasvegasnevada.gov/sirepub/pubmtgframe.aspx?meetid=415&doctype=Agenda
Go to items 50-53 on the April 24th city planning agenda and click on the "supporting documentation" pdf. (6 megs)

What has happened to the Review Journal? It is rapidly evolving from a legitimate city newspaper into an irrelevant gossip sheet. Another example is today's column on MGM by Jane Ann Morrison.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/17966934.html

Yeah, after giving it some serious thought. I think I'll close my whole position in my MGM investment. Having a fake Golden Nugget on display, is just crossing the line. How could MGM betray us like that. Who cares if Bellagio is one of the nicest and best ran hotels in the world. This is just unthinkable.

WHO FREAKING CARES!!!! Its a gold rock! Gas is almost $4 a gallon, We are at war, and have lost 4000 lives. Many of the nations biggest banks were close to failure. Are you that hard up for a news story??? I can't believe you actually wasted your time, and the paper to print this story. You could have skipped this story, and nobody would have known or cared, and you might have saved 100 trees! Go find a story worth reporting on, and then report back. This is trash!!!

It will be interesting to me to see if Hunter holds Trumps feet to the fire if they have fake plants like Palazzo.

Anxiously awaiting his review of the joint.

Here's the URL for the sidebar: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0505/080a_print.html

The article makes it sound like Viva is going on the Wild Wild West site rather than on the (considerable) acreage consolidated around Palace Station. That can't be right.

Posted by Mark D

Yeah, the Viva site is on the corner of Trop and Dean Martin. It's not just Wild Wild West, but includes the truck stop and lots of the warehouses behind there and the fast food lots on Trop and goes all the way up to Harmon around Panarama Towers and west to Valley View. It's larger than the CityCenter site. The Palace Station site is a separate mega project site.

Here are some photos from my weekender:

http://www.ratevegas.com/photo/gallery/april2008

Of course, I will be writing it up, including my first time in a condo-hotel: Trump International Las Vegas.

Re: fake plants at Trump.... I have to admit I didn't notice. If they did have fake plants, I think that's pretty lame. Not a lot of plants in general.

Major news from Macau this morning:
"The Macau government will not issue any new casino licenses in the near future in this Chinese gambling enclave, its leader said Tuesday.
The administration also will not approve new application from the territory's 28 casinos for additional gambling tables and slot machines, Ho added."

How will this affect plans for existing operators, Wynn, LVS and MGM? Are they prohibited from building new properties or adding tables and slots? Lots of unanswered questions.
Does anyone have additional information?
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200804220834DOWJONESDJONLINE000379_FORTUNE5.htm

Ah, so that's the news. I couldn't find the news, but I found it hard to not notice my 3 Macau gaming stocks were up 10-12%. I am sure Wynn Cotai and other planned properties are going to be grandfathered in. If they were not, these stocks would be down, and not up.

Thanks for the photos Hunter.

They are obviously replacing the walkway (that never worked when I used it!) on that entrance to the Mirage. Do you think they will replace/change the rest of that structure?

Cheers, Andrew

Posted by mike_ch

Today's RJ (I know, I know) carried some story from the WSJ written by someone who I've forgotten, but did notice was not Binkley since she's been a topic of discussion lately. It read like spin.

The story was basically all about how Las Vegas is getting so affordable now and listing off sites and resources to find rooms at low prices. It stunk heavily of payola from one source or another. Room taxes at work, maybe?

To give you an idea of how ridiculous it was, it claimed Red Rock is "a few minutes from the strip." Bwahah!

Anyway, I'm not informed as to the current situation of the Journal so I have no idea if I can blame Rupert Murdoch for this or not (not a big fan of his idea of journalism) but it was a very blatant ad from a source that is thought of as not that sort of thing.

David McKee, here's more information on STN's "bigger than CityCenter" project. Not your father's Wild Wild West!
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/apr/23/station-casinos-banking-biggest-being-best/

Thanks, Detroit. And that LA Times story about Vegas bargains had the Peppermill being "two miles" away from the Strip. It must have up and skedaddled away from the Riviera when we weren't looking.

Posted by Mark D

It's ironic that Station announced this project the day before they laid off their entire in-house construction department on Thursday. So they're not planning to start construction any time soon. There were a total of about 70 layoffs throughout the corporate offices Thursday.
http://www.casinocitytimes.com/news/article.cfm?contentID=172672

Happy Birthday to Wynn, Happy Birthday to Wynn. Well, On this day 3 years ago, Wynn Las Vegas opened for business. That is hard to believe. My how time flys!!! It was on this day, 2 years ago, that Wynn broke ground on Encore. This is also Elaine Wynn's birthday. And since I'm showing my knowledge, this is also the day which Apple launched itunes, which is now the single largest seller of music. April 28th, is a very important day, or so it seems.

I noticed LVS sure kept their bad earnings quiet. I didn't even realize they had reported, until I saw their stock down $7 today. I hope Wynn's Macau numbers are better than Sand's were. I guess we'll find out later today!

Wynn earnings were interesting. Not quite as dire as LVS, but you can definitely see the weakness in Vegas. The number that really popped off the page was the "VIP" turnover of $14.8 billion. Can that be for real? That works out to about $164 million per day for the quarter.

Yes, I'm still alive. Sorry for the lack of posts - I was in Vegas.

I've got a bunch of posts on deck, some restaurant reviews (Cut, Table 10, Nove) and more...

A few nice tidbits in the Wynn earnings report: External hiring for Encore Las Vegas begins July 1st and reservations will begin June 15th. Wish somebody would have asked Encore Las Vegas' exact opening date. I was looking forward to Wynn repeating history a la Golden Nugget and the nugget they had on display with Diamond Suites and the biggest pear-shaped diamond in the world. I wonder if he's still considering that now that they're going to call Diamond Suites Encore as well. It also sounded like the Cotai project will be happening sooner than the golf course redevelopment.

One staggering statistic: If Encore gets the Mobil Five Star, Wynn Resorts will lay claim to 60% of the Five Star rooms in the United States. They can't possibly be shooting for all of Encore to get that distinction. I don't even think hotels that large qualify.

Here's the transcript of the WYNN conference call:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/75276-wynn-resorts-limited-q1-2008-earnings-call-transcript?page=-1

I went to MGM Grand Detroit last evening. What recession??? It was very busy, but I guess that could also be people in tough economic times looking for a quick fix. A bartender (often the source of accurate information) told me MGM Detroit does better than MGM Grand Vegas because of the greater slot play in Detroit, lower expenses for entertainment and mostly because of liquor revenue. Michigan law prohibits comping alcohol, so even with comped meals, there's still a big wine or drink bill.
Additional layoffs this week. Wolfgang Puck Cafe, a very nice upscale but casual restaurant allegedly laid off 30 employees.

There is nothing I saw in Wynn's numbers, that would scare me. In fact, April showed somewhat of a rebound, and these stimulus checks should only help Vegas. The one thing I was glad to see, was the huge gain at MPEL is experiencing was not at Wynn's expense. It would look as if MPEL is stealing most of its business from LVS amoung others, but not for Wynn.

Just booked The Mirage for early/mid June through a marketing offer. I was assured all standard rooms would be renovated by then and they expect to begin renovations on Tower Deluxe rooms and suites at that time as well.

Mike,

I am told renovations will not be complete until August so just keep that in mind in case not all the rooms are ready.

Hunter

Fingers crossed.

Posted by Michael Lu

I hope you get the room. Supposedly, the new rooms are going to have media hubs that allow you to connect all your tech gadgets and display them on the lcd television. I know some other hotels were thinking of doing it, but the feature got 86'd in the end. Something about revenue loss from in-room movies and stuff.

Posted by Michael Lu

I hope you get the room. Supposedly, the new rooms will have media hubs that allow you to connect all your tech gadgets and display them on the lcd television. I know some other hotels were thinking of doing it, but the feature got 86'd in the end. Something about revenue loss from in-room movies and stuff.

Struggling casino operator Tropicana Entertainment LLC is expected to file for bankruptcy protection as early as today, said two people familiar with the matter. It would be the largest corporate bankruptcy of the year, and the latest blow to Las Vegas, which has seen gambling revenues decline and major building projects canceled or delayed in the last few months.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121001918657068461.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Some very reliable sources tell me Encore opens December 15th.

I'm on my way to the Annual Shareholder's Meeting now. I'll see if he offers more info, and i'll report back, if I obtain any information worth discussing.