Although not unscathed by the economic downturn, Nevada’s gaming destinations are on the move.
The Las Vegas Strip continues to push the envelope, with construction reaching skyward and promising massive resort towers in a myriad of shapes. At the same time, new resorts are springing up in desert areas surrounding Las Vegas, and destinations elsewhere in the state have been undergoing reinventions of their own.
In addition to upgrading its casino resorts, Reno is filling in downtown sites that will increase its appeal. Laughlin, which also has an upgraded casino product, has joined Reno and the Nevada Commission on Tourism in promoting outdoor recreation. Henderson is getting an expanded and upgraded convention center, while Mesquite sees potential in a whole new sports market.
It has all been happening in a year of a faltering economy, energy hikes, airline woes, declines in casino returns and a credit crunch that is making financing difficult for the many Vegas properties still on the drawing board.
With more than 134,000 hotel rooms, Las Vegas last year enjoyed its highest occupancy level in recent times—90.4 percent—matching the previous record set in 1996 before a slew of new-generation, large-scale resorts came on the scene.
“Unprecedented” is a word much used in the press to describe the Vegas condition today as it awaits a new wave of resorts and a deluge of rooms and meeting space.
Las Vegas
Accompanied by fireworks and a star-studded weekend, the $1.9 billion Palazzo Las Vegas debuted in January with 3,068 suites, new celebrity-chef restaurants, a casino and 60 upscale stores, capped in April by a “green” certification.
Called a “megacenter” by Las Vegas Sands, its Palazzo, The Venetian and Sands Expo and Convention Center together have 7,100 rooms and 2.2 million square feet of meeting and exhibit space.
The Venetian completed a $100 million renovation of 3,014 suites late last year and won, for the first time, AAA’s Five-Diamond for 2008, joining four others with the award—Bellagio, Four Seasons, Skylofts at MGM Grand and Wynn.
A celebrity-packed celebration held June 1 for the Palms Place Condo Hotel & Spa followed a February soft opening. With 599 condo suites and a 50,000-square-foot pool and spa, it is connected by the moving-walkway Skytube to the Palms Casino Resort, which can hold events for 5,000.
The non-gaming Trump International Hotel & Tower debuted in March adjacent to Fashion Show Mall, its 64 stories containing 1,282 suites, a 10,000-square-foot spa and 2,400 square feet of indoor meeting space.
And Wynn Resorts expects to open the 2,034-suite, $2.3 billion Encore with a casino and convention and meeting space adjacent to Wynn Las Vegas in December.
This year Bellagio unveiled a $60 million redesign of its 512 Bellagio Tower suites; Harrah’s Las Vegas completed improvements to its 25,000 square feet of meeting space and the Flamingo’s 73,000 square feet of meeting space underwent a makeover.
In a multiphase enhancement that has included new lounge, restaurant and nightclub offerings, the Luxor is set to unveil the city’s newest Cirque du Soleil production show in October, Criss Angel Believe. Its new museum attraction, “Bodies: The Exhibition,” opened in August, while two others are under construction (Titanic and Sports Immortals).
In a $1 billion renovation and expansion, next year Caesars will open the 665-room Octavius Tower and a new 263,000-square-foot convention center, which is taking bookings for dates starting June 1. Also, the Forum Tower is getting 452 remodeled rooms.
More New Resorts
Scheduled to open in late 2009 are the two curved towers of CityCenter’s core project: the 4,004-room Aria Resort & Casino, with 300,000 square feet of meeting and convention space and an all-glass casino at the very top. Located between Bellagio and Monte Carlo, the $8 billion “vertical city” of MGM Mirage and Dubai World, will also have three non-gaming hotels, including a Mandarin Oriental.
Also expected to open in late 2009 is the $2.9 billion, 25-acre Fontainebleau Las Vegas, featuring a 63-story, 3,889-room resort, a 3,200-seat performing arts theater, retail shops, meeting space and a casino.
Work continues on the $1.8 billion Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino, wedged between the Bellagio and CityCenter. However, lender Deutsche Bank, which began foreclosure proceedings in January, is reportedly seeking new partners for the project, which includes a 3,000-room Grand Hyatt with an announced late-2009 opening.
Meanwhile, construction continues on other projects with 2009 expected openings, including the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino’s 950-room expansion, which includes an additional 60,000 square feet of meeting space, and Planet Hollywood Towers with 1,200 condo and timeshare units.
There will also be a new 500-room tower for downtown’s Golden Nugget, which follows a $60 million expansion phase completed late last year that included 11,000 square feet of new meeting space.
Main-building work is expected be under way in the first quarter of next year on the long-awaited $890 million Las Vegas Convention Center enhancement program, which would add 90,000 square feet of meeting rooms, a new grand lobby and upgrading by 2011. Later this year, the first undertaking, a police substation, is expected to open and work is to begin on a fire station.
Also this year, an ever changing entertainment scene brought the musical Jersey Boys to the Palazzo, Cher and Bette Midler to the Colosseum at Caesars Palace and Donny and Marie Osmond to the Flamingo in September.
Last summer saw resort zoo attractions welcome new inhabitants; a komodo dragon joined the 2,000 species at Mandalay Bay’s Shark Reef Aquarium while the Mirage’s Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden added a pair of tiger cubs.
Off-Strip Expansion
Known for its niche in the “locals” casino market, Station Casinos gained a meetings high-profile with its Green Valley Ranch Resort and Spa in Henderson, which completed a $110 million expansion two years ago that brought its total meeting space to 64,000 square feet.
Then, early last year the company opened the final phase of its 400-room Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa in Summerlin, with 94,000 square feet of function space adjoining the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
On Nov. 11, Station Casinos holds the grand opening for its 11th hotel–casino, the $675 million, 202-room Aliante Station.
Located in North Las Vegas 20 miles from the Strip, it will include 14,000 square feet of meeting space, a 16-screen movie theater and a 700-seat entertainment concert venue.
In July, Michael Gaughan’s South Point Hotel, Casino and Spa, five miles south of the Strip, opened a third hotel tower, adding 830 rooms and an additional 10,000 square feet of meeting space. The $100 million expansion brought the room count to 2,163 and meeting and convention space to 160,000 square feet.
To the east, near Boulder Highway and Harmon Aveenue, Cannery Casino Resorts in late August opened its new 307-room Eastside Cannery Casino & Hotel with 20,000-square feet of ballroom and meeting space on the site of its Nevada Palace Casino.
Henderson/Lake Las Vegas
Henderson, Nevada’s second-largest city, has 3,000 hotel rooms, about one-third of them at Lake Las Vegas, a master-planned community with three golf courses. It features a Ritz-Carlton and Loews Lake Las Vegas, which has invested about $10 million in renovations since acquiring the former Hyatt almost two years ago.
There is also the 300-unit MonteLago Village Resort, which unveiled a 3,829-square-foot events center in July, bringing total meeting space to 10,000 square feet.
“Meeting planners find Henderson a desirable destination because of its close proximity to the Strip and McCarran Airport. We have over 250,000 square feet of meeting space at a variety of properties and offer amenities that rival any big city,” says Ed Kirby, national sales manager at the Henderson CVB.
Downtown’s Henderson Convention Center has 10,000 square feet of column-free meeting space.
Two years ago the city added the $9 million Henderson Events Plaza, located between the center and city hall, with over 60,000 square feet of function space, much of it canopy shaded.
According to Kirby, the Henderson Events Plaza has been important in downtown development, hosting the city’s largest community and tourism events, including the St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival, WinterFest, art festivals and classic car shows.
Closing down in September, the convention center will reopen in fall 2009 after an extensive renovation and expansion that will integrate it with the plaza and include a new lobby, indoor performance theater, art gallery, executive conference room and upgraded sound, lighting and audio systems.
“It will reposition the Henderson Events Center and Plaza, incorporating the existing exhibit and meeting space with Southern Nevada’s first outdoor plaza and canopy amphitheatre,” Kirby says.
And 10 miles south of the Strip on South Las Vegas Boulevard in Henderson is the recently topped-out $1 billion M Resort Spa and Casino.
Expected to open in March, and with more retail and entertainment planned for a second phase, it will feature 390 rooms, gaming and more than 60,000 square feet of meeting and conference space.
M Resort Founder, CEO and Chairman Anthony A. Marnell III says the property has been specifically designed for the needs of small to mid-sized meetings and events.
“When we were designing the resort, we found that there was a lack of full-service conference facilities for medium-sized business events,” he says.
Laughlin
On the Colorado River, 90 miles south of Vegas and drawing on Southern California and Arizona markets, Laughlin has nine casino hotels with a combined 10,610 rooms and 125,000 square feet of meeting space.
New hotel ownership followed by makeovers has resulted in a general upgrade of the destination.
The 1,907-room Aquarius Casino Resort, formerly the Flamingo Laughlin, is wrapping up a $20 million room renovation.
In July last year, the 1,500-room Ramada Express became the Tropicana Express following an $11 million renovation. The Colorado Belle and Edgewater, with a combined 2,500 rooms, have been undergoing multimillion-dollar renovations since a group led by M Resort’s Anthony Marnell III acquired them from MGM Mirage in June last year.
“Laughlin has a comfortable feeling. It’s unpretentious, and has always been an affordable destination. It’s like you own the place,” says Meg McDaniel, senior manager, regional sales, at the Laughlin Visitors Bureau.
A new branding and marking campaign launched by the bureau is geared to promoting outdoor recreation, including water activities on the Colorado.
“We have more than casinos. We have birding—more than 200 species of birds—hiking, biking, old mines, historic sites and Route 66. People don’t realize that,” McDaniel says.
Mesquite
Known for its golf, Mesquite, 80 miles northeast of Vegas close to the Arizona and Utah state lines, has six championship golf courses and the same number of full-service hotels and resorts.
Meeting facilities are at three casino hotels: the CasaBlanca, (47,000 square feet); the Oasis (13,774 square feet) and the Eureka (4,500 square feet), which has completed a $30 million expansion, adding gaming and restaurant space. The non-gaming Falcon Ridge Hotel has 5,949 square feet of meeting space.
“Mesquite is a fraction of the cost of other major destinations for golf, spa, dining and hotel rooms. The association market loves us for it. Also, all properties are individually owned so there are no corporate hoops to jump through,” says Gina Mann, LVCVA’s Mesquite sales executive.
Mesquite’s big news is that work is under way on Mesquite Regional Park, a 650-acre complex of tournament-level soccer fields and other sports facilities.
The first component will be completed by Oct. 20 for the annual ReMax World Long Drivers Championship, for which it will be a permanent home, and which is expected to draw 1,000-plus attendees.
“It will provide the LVCVA with the opportunity to solicit a slew of new sporting and special events for Mesquite,” Mann says.
Reno/Sparks
The adjacent cities of Reno and Sparks boast 23,000 hotel rooms and two major meeting facilities, the 500,000-square-foot Reno-Sparks Convention Center and 118,000-square-foot Reno Events Center.
“If you haven’t been here in three years you won’t know it. The investment is mind-boggling,” says Philip D’Amico, vice president of convention sales for the Reno Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority. “We’re a first-class destination that conventioneers are discovering offers great value at reasonable prices, a place where hotels are more willing to take meetings groups on weekends,”
A new round of downtown revitalization is under way, including a $50 million baseball stadium, set for completion by April 2009, which will have a retail/entertainment component. Close by is the Reno Events Center and a new $25 million, 32,000-square-foot ballroom on an adjacent site.
According to D’Amico, the new stadium, the events center, the National Bowling Stadium and eight casinos will all be within walking distance of each other.
Work is starting on a Hyatt Summerfield Suites, downtown’s first new hotel since 1995. Hyatt Place properties are planned for the baseball stadium and airport areas, and a Hilton Garden Inn opened in South Reno in March. Among new retail complexes under development are downtown’s West Market Village and Legends at Sparks Marina.
Following the success of downtown’s 3-year-old Truckee River Whitewater Park, a catalyst for a first round of rejuvenation, Sparks recently broke ground on its own river water park, slated to open next summer with white-water kayaking, rafting and tubing options.
The 1,000-room Atlantis Casino Resort Spa is completing a $50 million renovation and expansion that features a spa, 14,000-square-foot ballroom and new meeting rooms. The final component, a skybridge connecting it to Reno-Sparks Convention Center, is expected to open this month.
The 1,995-room Grand Sierra Resort has been undergoing major enhancements since the former Reno Hilton came under new ownership in 2006. This year work has focused on the renovation of its 200,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space, which will complete the first phase of a $90 million renovation and expansion plan.
Peppermill Resort Casino Reno began rolling out a $400 million expansion last fall, opening two new restaurants, bringing the total to 11; then came a 62,000-square-foot ballroom, bringing total meeting space to 102,000 square feet, followed in December by the new 600-room Tuscany Tower, bringing total rooms to 1,635.
This fall Peppermill is completing the project, unveiling a spa, health club, nightclub, steakhouse and three pools.
Sparks’ largest hotel, the 1,600-room John Ascuaga’s Nugget, with 110,000 square feet of meeting space, in February completed a four-month, $17 million renovation of its 600 tower rooms.
Last summer, RSCVA, which promotes the outdoors with the tag “Reno–Tahoe, America’s Adventure Place,” unveiled a redesigned web site at www.visitrenotahoe.com with enhanced meeting content.
Carson City
In Carson City, 30 minutes from both Reno and Lake Tahoe, Carson Gaming opened a 100-room Courtyard by Marriott in March adjacent to its Casino Fandango. The hotel, which added more meeting space to the area’s largest casino, was the final phase of a $45 million expansion that included the unveiling of a new restaurant, movie theater and casino expansion last year.
Lake Tahoe
Tahoe’s North Shore has several casinos, including the 422-room Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Spa & Casino at Incline Village, which offers 50,000 square feet of function space.
Developers acquired the Tahoe Biltmore and the Crystal Bay Casino Hotel last year and expect to begin site redevelopment next year. Plans include 366 hotel and condo units, a casino, 12,000 square feet of meeting space and a pedestrian shopping village.
Work has yet to start on the major renovation of the Cal Neva Resort, Spa and Casino in Crystal Bay, once owned by Frank Sinatra.
Tahoe’s South Shore is home to Stateline, where four casino hotels—MontBleu Resort, Casino and Spa; Harveys Resort & Casino; Harrah’s Lake Tahoe and Horizon Casino Resort—together provide 69,000 square feet of meeting space.
Work began in summer 2007 on the $420 million Chateau at Heavenly Village on the California side, across from Harveys. However, construction has stalled while the developer seeks financing. A partner in the project, RockResorts International, has pulled out.
Originally expected to be completed in summer 2009, the project features 470 guest rooms, a 50,000-square-foot convention center with a 21,000-square-foot prefunction area, a spa, a park, shops and restaurants. With the area’s largest meetings capacity, it would be able to host 1,600 delegates.
For More Info
Carson City CVB 775.687.7410 www.visitcarsoncity.com
Elko Convention and Visitors Authority 775.738.4091 www.elkocva.com
Henderson Convention Center and Visitors Bureau 702.267.2171 www.visithenderson.com
Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority 775.588.5900 www.bluelaketahoe.com
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority 702.892.0711 www.lvcva.com
Laughlin Visitors Bureau 702.298.3321 www.visitlaughlin.com
Nevada Commission on Tourism 775.687.4322 www.travelnevada.com
North Lake Tahoe Visitors and Convention Bureau 530.581.8703 www.gotahoenorth.com
Reno–Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority 775.827.7600 www.visitrenolaketahoe.com
