Every so often Las Vegas goes through a massive reinvention, putting a whole new spin on its ever-evolving persona. Just as theme resorts were once the glittering new kids on the block, now the Strip is morphing into a collection of multifaceted complexes where boutique hotels, condo-hotels, mega hotels, shopping arcades, spas, ultra lounges, celebrity chef-owned restaurants, and huge convention facilities form destinations unto themselves.
From MGM Grand to Mandalay Bay to the Las Vegas Sands Megacenter, attendees can settle in for several days and enjoy a huge variety of dining, entertainment and venues without ever leaving the grounds. Within a couple of years, massive new developments such as MGM Mirage’s CityCenter and Boyd Gaming’s Echelon Place will provide an even greater variety of accommodations and amenities at one address.
Many new developments are also intensifying the consolidation trend in Las Vegas, with companies such as MGM Mirage, Harrah’s Entertainment and Las Vegas Sands operating ever-growing empires of mega resorts and meeting facilities in prime Strip locations. In many cases, consolidation has created a “one-stop shop” situation, where meeting planners can map out agendas using the restaurants, venues and various other amenities at several different hotels operated by one company.
“You can call or e-mail us and have access to six properties,” says Michael Massari, vice president of meeting sales and operations for Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah’s Entertainment. “You can do an opening reception at Paris, an event at the Rio, a closing night at the Flamingo—and all by working with one food and beverage manager, one sales manager and one convention services manager. And you can leverage your spend.”
Brand-New Brands
Another important trend in town is an influx of new hotel brands. While international hotel companies once had little presence in Las Vegas, now there is almost no end to the number of hotel companies eager to have their flags flown on or near the Strip.
They run the gamut from hip boutique brands such as Delano and Mondrian to Asian-based luxury brands such as Shangri-La and Mandarin Oriental. Also slated to have a Strip presence are the new Fontainebleau and Plaza brands, based on the legendary Miami and New York hotels of the same name.
With average occupancy rates continuing to hover at the 90 percent mark, industry observers say it’s no surprise that hotel companies are vying for a piece of the action.
“The demand is there and it’s been fairly steady over the past few years, so the international hotel companies have the comfort level knowing that the market will prosper,” says hospitality industry consultant Brian Gordon, principal at Las Vegas-based Applied Analysis. “Las Vegas is no longer just a gaming destination—it’s more about shopping and entertainment. So the chains are comfortable with this environment.”
Chris Stein, vice president of Denver-based Hospitality Real Estate Counselors, agrees, adding that the increasing ability of Strip hotels to charge high room rates, especially on weekends, is another factor.
“The transformation of Las Vegas from a high occupancy/low room rate town to one with both high occupancies and high room rates has brought the international brands in,” he says. “They want to be where they can get high revenues.”
Meanwhile, the Rat Pack era of Strip resorts continues to go out with a bang, most recently with the implosion of the New Frontier Hotel and Casino in November to make way for the Plaza development. The 65-year-old property had been a home venue for Siegfried & Roy, Elvis and other Las Vegas icons.
According to David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, the continuing implosion of older resorts is an inevitable result of the city’s evolution into an upscale destination, especially along the Strip. It may only be a matter of time before the Strip’s few remaining mid-20th century properties meet a similar fate, he adds.
“The developers of the new properties are going after a higher-end clientele than was served by the resorts that were demolished,” he says. “They have to because of the high cost of construction. As a result, there will be fewer and fewer budget alternatives on the Strip.”
However, he says that competition fostered by new resort developments will ensure that groups unable to pay high rates will still be able to consider Las Vegas as a destination, particularly in off-Strip locations.
“There will continue to be plenty of price choices in Las Vegas, with a lot of off-Strip properties increasingly likely to make an aggressive pitch toward budget travelers,” he says.
Meetings Wanted
As Las Vegas progresses with its continuing growth and evolution, the importance of meetings business to the destination will only get stronger, according to Michael Goldsmith, director of convention sales for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).
He notes that with 35,000 additional hotel rooms to fill over the next few years, the LVCVA is targeting every segment of the meetings industry.
“With the new rooms coming on-line, we will continue efforts to expand all types of meetings—everything from board meetings to trade shows,” he says. “The destination is being expanded by 20 percent, so we need to expand our base as well. Of course, we hope that the rooms will continue to be filled as new rooms always have in the past.”
While many of the new properties will be targeting high-end corporate and incentive business, Goldsmith says associations and trade shows will continue to find a warm welcome.
“Of course, hotels want to achieve the highest possible daily rate, so corporate business is highly desirable,” he says. “However, we know that associations are our bread and butter. Corporate business is linked to the economy, but association business is constant. That’s why we’re focusing on all entities.”
Goldsmith says the new resort developments mean more options for meetings, bringing in a diversity of hotels, meeting space and entertainment choices that are even greater than in the past. He adds that they also illustrate how Las Vegas continues to lessen its reliance on gaming as its principal revenue stream.
“If you compare how the city was in past years to how it is today, the biggest change is that the casino is just one of many attractions—it’s not the main thing,” he says. “The floor plan at many hotels is no longer dominated by the casino, but is devoted to meeting space, shopping areas, restaurants, spas. At many properties, non-gaming revenue now exceeds gaming revenue.”
Destination Resorts
In fact, a growing number of Las Vegas resorts have so many diverse attractions under one roof that they are veritable destinations unto themselves. Some are now equipped to handle groups large enough to be considered citywide conventions anywhere else.
This trend is illustrated by the December opening of Palazzo Las Vegas, a 3,000-unit, all-suite property managed by Las Vegas Sands Corp., which also owns and operates the adjacent Venetian Resort and Sands Expo and Convention Center.
With the addition of Palazzo, the two resort hotels and convention center are being marketed to meeting planners as the Las Vegas Sands Megacenter, an integrated resort and meetings complex accommodating up to 55,000 attendees. Within the complex are 2.2 million square feet of meeting and exhibition space and over 7,000 guest suites.
Like its sister property, Palazzo features Italian-style decor and suite accommodations with a sunken living room and business amenities that include fax/copier/printers. The 50-story hotel also sports a domed lobby, a pool deck with seven pools and a shopping arcade anchored by Barneys New York.
Dining outlets at Palazzo feature restaurants headed by celebrity chefs that include Mario Batali, Wolfgang Puck, Charlie Trotter, and Emeril Lagasse. Coming this spring will be an 1,800-seat theater where the Broadway hit show Jersey Boys will be in residence for an indefinite period.
When it opens in late 2009, MGM Mirage’s $7.8 billion CityCenter will carry the destination resort concept further yet, offering four hotels on a 76-acre site located between the Monte Carlo and Bellagio resorts.
“Meetings at CityCenter will be highly efficient and deliver on every expectation,” says Gail Fitzgerald, vice president of hotel sales and marketing for CityCenter.
Its principle meetings property will be a 4,000-room casino hotel housed in a soaring tower designed by architects Pelli Clarke Pelli and offering a massive spa with 120 treatment rooms as well as ballrooms ranging in size from 20,000 to 56,000 square feet. The casino hotel will also offer 38 meeting rooms, all featuring built-in audiovisual systems and high-definition video projectors.
CityCenter hotels will also include Vdara, a 1,543-unit condo-hotel accommodating meetings of up to 400 people; Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Residences, a luxury property including 400 guest rooms and meeting space; and the Harmon Hotel, Spa & Residences, an ultra-modern tower with 600 guest rooms and condos and a pool deck perched 100 feet above the Strip.
CityCenter’s Retail and Entertainment District, designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind, will feature nightclubs, gourmet restaurants and high-end shops and galleries.
CityCenter will also be the first major Las Vegas resort to pursue Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
According to Fitzgerald, the complex has made use of recycled building materials from the former resort hotel on the site and will use reclaimed water for on-site power generation.
“We will be a sustainable community,” Fitzgerald says. “Planners will be able to host green meetings here.”
Set to open on the Strip in late 2010, Boyd Gaming’s Echelon Place will be similar in size and scope to CityCenter, spread over 86 acres on the site of the former Stardust. The complex will introduce three new hotel brands to the city, including a 600-room Delano, a 1,000-room Mondrian and a 330-room Shangri-La. There will also be a 2,600-room Echelon Resort and more than 750,000 square feet of meeting space.
Keeping Up Appearances
Meanwhile, sizeable investments are also being made in existing resorts and meeting venues. Not least among them is a $737 million renovation of the Las Vegas Convention Center, slated for completion in 2010. The project will remodel and update the facility, which originally opened in 1959 and has undergone 14 expansions.
“The enhancements will upgrade and modernize the entire facility to make it more user-friendly and efficient,” says the LVCVA’s Goldsmith. “We will tie in all the different parts of the center and make it as state-of-the-art as any facility in the country.”
Another major project in progress is a $1 billion expansion to Harrah’s Entertainment’s Caesars Palace that, when completed in early 2009, will add a 665-room tower and 110,000 square feet of meeting space, including a new ballroom and breakout space. A large terrace overlooking two new swimming pools will be available for outdoor functions.
“Caesars always had great meeting space, but this will address two areas where we needed improvement,” says Massari of Harrah’s Entertainment. “We needed a larger banquet area and we needed more breakout space and this gives us both.”
The expansion will also enable Harrah’s Entertainment, which has increased its Las Vegas meetings business by 46 percent since 2004, to stay competitive with the other new developments taking shape up and down the Strip.
“We’re very concerned about the coming new inventory. We always are—there was concern here during the last development wave in the 1990s,” Massari says. “It keeps us on our toes.”
At New York-New York, part of the MGM Mirage portfolio of resorts, a redesign and expansion of the hotel meeting rooms was recently completed, resulting in 21,000 square feet of space adaptable for groups in the range of 10 to 300 people. The resort now offers areas that include the new 2,200-square-foot Park Terrace overlooking the casino floor and the outdoor Brooklyn Bridge venue, where large dinners and receptions can be held.
“Ten years ago this was built as a leisure property. It still is, but meetings have become more of a priority for us,” says Christopher Bond, executive director-leisure sales for New York-New York. “The market has grown and we want to serve it.”
One of the biggest makeovers in town last year was the transformation of the former Aladdin into the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino. Operated by Sheraton, the movie-themed resort features more than 2,500 renovated guest rooms as well as a new lobby, restaurant, lounges, and entertainment areas.
Owners of the Tropicana Resort have received county approval for a major expansion and overhaul of the 50-year-old property. Once financing is secured, plans call for a $2.5 billion redevelopment that would create a mixed-use complex with 10,000 hotel rooms.
In downtown Las Vegas, the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino wrapped up a $170 million renovation that was set in place when Landry’s Restaurants acquired the 1,907-room property in 2005. The most recent additions to the resort include the Grand, a multipurpose events center that is available for conferences, banquets and receptions. The center includes audiovisual features and high-speed Internet access, and can be divided into separate rooms.
Other enhancements to the property include several new restaurants as well as lounges, club floors and a $30 million pool area with a live shark tank.
Henderson/Lake Las Vegas
Located just southwest of Las Vegas, the city of Henderson and the master-planned resort community of Lake Las Vegas have carved an important niche among groups that prefer midsize properties that are near, but not on, the Strip.
Henderson, which offers a convention center with 10,000 square feet of exhibit space and an adjacent events plaza, is home to Station Casino’s Green Valley Ranch Resort, Spa and Casino, a 490-room luxury property that recently expanded its meeting space to more than 64,000 square feet.
Another major resort is under way in Henderson, the $1.8 billion, 390-room M Resort, Spa and Casino, which is slated to open in spring 2009 with 40,000 square feet of meeting space on a site directly south of the Strip on Las Vegas Blvd.
According to Anthony Marnell, chairman and CEO of M Resort, the property will be well suited to serve the corporate meeting and incentive market.
“We will be targeting groups who don’t want to stay in a 5,000-room hotel where you have to walk miles through the casino to get to your room or the meeting space,” he says. “We will make small and midsize groups a priority.”
Across the street from M Resort, Olympia Gaming is planning to develop the $2 billion Southern Highlands Resort, a mixed-use project that will feature 600 guest rooms and a major meeting and convention facility in its first phase.
Small and midsize corporate meetings are also the focus of the resorts at Lake Las Vegas, a complex on the shores of a manmade lake that includes the 493-room Loews Lake Las Vegas, the 349-room Ritz-Carlton, Lake Las Vegas and the 347-room Montelago Village Resort. Recent additions to Lake Las Vegas include The Ritz-Carlton’s Pontevecchio Pavilion, a glass-enclosed ballroom accommodating up to 300 people, and Montelago Village’s 3,900-square-foot Riva di Lago Events Center, which includes a conference room, a great room and an adjacent 6,150-square-foot patio.
Summerlin
West of Las Vegas and set against the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, the master-planned community of Summerlin is home to the 2-year-old, 814-room Red Rock Casino, Resort and Spa, which offers 100,000 square feet of meeting space, a 72-lane bowling center, a three-acre pool area, and 16 movie theaters.
Other major properties include the 548-room JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa, which offers 80,000 square feet of meeting space, and the 368-room Suncoast Hotel & Casino, where meeting space totals 25,000 square feet.
Laughlin
Situated 90 miles south of Las Vegas, where the Nevada, California and Arizona borders meet, Laughlin offers over 10,000 hotel rooms and 125,000 square feet of meeting space and is a popular destination for the Southern California and Greater Phoenix markets.
Laughlin has several large resorts with meeting space, including the 1,900-room Aquarius Laughlin, the 1,561-room Harrah’s Laughlin Hotel & Casino, the 1,500-room Tropicana Express Hotel & Casino, the 1,404-room Riverside Resort Hotel & Casino, the 1,350-room Edgewater Hotel & Casino, and the 1,003-room River Palms Resort Hotel & Casino.
Mesquite
Located 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas and close to both the Arizona and Utah borders, Mesquite has recreational amenities that include seven golf courses and more adventure-oriented options such as ATV excursions. Day trips to Utah’s Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks and Nevada’s Valley of Fire State Park are other popular activities.
Mesquite’s major hotels for groups include the 448-room CasaBlanca Resort, Casino & Spa, which will unveil a new 40,000-square-foot conference center later this year, and the 1,072-room Oasis Resort Hotel, which recently completed a room renovation. Set to open next year is Solstice Mesquite, a mixed-use complex with a 1,200-room resort casino and 125-room boutique hotel.
Primm
Near the California border about 40 miles outside Las Vegas, Primm serves meetings with Herbst Gaming’s Primm Valley Resorts, three properties offering a total of 2,644 guest rooms and 62,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space that includes a conference center and 6,000-seat arena.
Amenities in Primm include the Primm Valley Golf Club, with two Tom Fazio-designed golf courses, an outlet mall and the Desperado, a high-speed roller coaster.
For More Info
Henderson Convention
Center and Visitors Bureau 702.267.2171
www.visithenderson.com
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority 702.892.0711
www.lvcva.com
Laughlin Visitors Bureau 702.298.3022
www.visitlaughlin.com
