The $8.5 billion CityCenter on the Las Vegas Strip will open in phases starting next week. The economy has stalled other major casino projects in Vegas and Atlantic City.
- A Phila. effort to counter the departed Dad Vail
- CityCenter raises stakes on the Vegas Strip
- Killer of Officer Chuck Cassidy sentenced to die
- Appeals Court: School district can ban Christmas carols
- N.J. won't enforce flu-shot mandate
- Get started collecting your family stories
- Tragic mystery: How did John Lewis become a killer?
- Nepal begins a ritual in blood
- Claims against Phila. VA up to $58 million
- Boxer's death ruled accidental
- Obama taps Penn's Gutmann to lead bioethics panel
- Body of missing N.J. fisherman found in N.C.
- Your life, by personal historians
- Comcast's holiday show is a breakout in 3-D
- Pottsgrove students mourn classmates killed in crash
- Beach repairs at risk in restrictive Shore towns
- Wyeths' work up for auction
- Dan Gross: Sports talker opening comedy club
- Fallen boxer's organs will give life to others
- Sports Authority, Nintendo team up to sell Wii Fit as fitness equipment
- Holiday train shows take Obama homes on board
- 23-year coma victim talking, or no?
- Boat owner's body found
- John Lewis was unlike many killers, but in prison he'll slip into a familiar pattern
- Officer Cassidy's killer sentenced to die; defendant asks forgiveness, is rebuffed by widow
- Parade taking a new route
- Boxer dies in Blue Horizon bout
- Camden again ranks worst on crime list
- Gunshot victim Brinkley renews NFL quest
- Shooter cop was investigated for multiple citizen complaints
RELATED STORIES
CityCenter raises stakes on the Vegas Strip
LAS VEGAS - CityCenter, the 67-acre glass-and-steel metropolis that debuts here next week, is being billed as the next great mega-casino resort.
The $8.5 billion joint venture by MGM Mirage Inc. and Dubai World features the work of eight top architects and several luxury hotel and condo towers, a major retail complex, and, not least, a full casino.
It represents the next wave of uber-resort-casinos with everything under one roof. And it could be the last project of its scope to be built in Las Vegas for several years, analysts say, because of the credit squeeze, low demand, and an oversupply of hotel rooms.
"I don't think you can describe CityCenter as a casino," said Kevin DeSanctis, chief executive of Revel Entertainment Group L.L.C., which is developing the $2.5 billion Revel Casino in Atlantic City. "It's much broader than that."
Vegas is used to one-upmanship among developers, but CityCenter is its biggest bet yet - and its most expensive undertaking during a turbulent time for the gambling industry.
"We project visitation to increase 2 to 5 percent in 2010, driven largely by the opening of CityCenter," said Vince Alberta of the city's Convention and Visitors Authority.
Phased opening begins Tuesday with the first of four hotel towers, the Vdara Hotel & Spa, whose 1,495 suites double as residential condos.
On Dec. 3, the Crystals Retail & Entertainment District opens its glass doors; the next day, the Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas hotel opens.
Then on Dec. 16, CityCenter's crown jewel debuts: the Aria Resort & Casino, with its 150,000-square-foot gaming floor.
CityCenter is the only major project seeing completion in Vegas this year. Others were put on hold because of financial problems, including the $4.5 billion Echelon resort being developed by Boyd Gaming Corp., which co-owns the Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa in Atlantic City.
The $3.5 billion Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino was taken over by Deutsche Bank A.G. early last year, after its developer defaulted on more than $900 million in loans. The bank is trying to complete the project by mid-2010.
Another casino resort, the Fontainebleau, was about 70 percent complete when developers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June.
On Monday, billionaire investor Carl Icahn offered $105 million to buy the project from debtors, plus $51.5 million in funding to resume construction, which already has cost more than $2 billion. He outbid Penn National Gaming Inc. of Wyomissing, Pa., to open bidding at a bankruptcy auction Jan. 21.
Even gaming powerhouse MGM Mirage, which owns 10 casinos here, the most on the Strip, sought outside help to complete CityCenter.
In August 2007, MGM and Dubai World - an investment company that manages a portfolio of businesses and projects for the government of Dubai - announced a long-term strategic relationship. Dubai World would invest about $5 billion in MGM Mirage, including $2.7 billion for CityCenter.
When it is completed next year, CityCenter - tucked between the Bellagio and the Monte Carlo on the Strip - will employ 12,000 and add more than 5,800 hotel rooms.
Some experts predict the new supply, coming as Las Vegas already is heavily discounting rooms to boost occupancy, could hurt business at existing hotels and result in still-lower room rates.
In pre-recession 2001, Las Vegas had 125,000 hotel rooms to fill. By 2008's end, that number had swelled to 141,000. An additional 16,000 rooms are set to open in the next two years.
The industry calculates that every 1,000 new rooms require 200,000 new visitors per year to fill them.
"CityCenter will play a role in increasing market revenue; however, we anticipate 70 to 90 percent of its revenue will come at the expense of existing operators," said Las Vegas-based Jacob Oberman of the commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.
