Board OKs license for NY-NY resort

Gary Thompson

Friday, Nov. 8, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

New York-New York, the newest of the Strip's new mega-resorts, will debut just eight weeks from today after receiving unanimous license approval from the State Gaming Control Board.

And judging from Control Board member Brian Harris' recent sneak preview, the resort's much-anticipated interior will deliver on the exterior's extravagant promises.

"When I went through last week, the inside was just as spectacular as the outside, and it's still under construction," Harris said Thursday. "It's absolutely fantastic."

Harris and fellow board members Bill Bible and Steve DuCharme listened raptly as New York-New York President William Sherlock described how the $460 million resort that replicates Big Apple skyscrapers and other landmarks will operate.

"It's a great building in a great location," Sherlock said. "There are 20,300 guest rooms nearby that average 90 percent or better occupancy, which we think will drive a tremendous amount of business our way."

The project, a joint venture of MGM Grand Inc. and Primadonna Resorts Inc., sits on 18 acres at the northwest corner of Tropicana Avenue and the Strip. It's within a five-minute walk from the MGM, Excalibur, Tropicana and Monte Carlo, and not much farther away from Luxor, Polo Towers, the Jockey Club, Aladdin, Bally's and Bellagio, the $1.3 billion resort under construction at the Strip and Flamingo.

"We've taken that superior location and the unique theme and added an outstanding entertainment value," Sherlock said. The resort will include an 84,000-square-foot casino, 2,034 rooms, 2,400 slot machines, 71 table games, a 1,000-seat theater housing a production show that opens May 1, a 28,000-square-foot nightclub -- The Motown Cafe -- four restaurants and a food court modeled after the Little Italy section of Lower Manhattan.

"You'll walk through there and truly feel you're wandering through the streets of New York," Sherlock said. The central casino area is designed as a miniature Central park, while the cashier's cage offers Wall Street facades. Retail shops will mirror areas of Park Avenue.

The resort's exterior replicates 12 New York City skyscrapers, including the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and the Seagram's Building, as well as the Statute of Liberty, Grand Central Station and the Ellis Island Immigrant Receiving Station.

Gaming Control Board member DuCharme questioned MGM Grand and Primadonna executives about provisions for resolving disputes that might arise in managing the joint venture.

The so-called deadlock-resolution procedures, triggered only by major differences, call for arbitration in the first six months after opening, then initiation of a buy-sell agreement under which either side could make a cash offer for the 50 percent stake it doesn't own; the other venture partner would be required to sell or buy at the offered price.

But MGM executives Terry Lanni and Alex Yemenidjian as well as Primadonna chief Gary Primm indicated they see little likelihood of any major disputes.

"The only time the six New York-New York directors didn't vote unanimously on an issue was in deciding whether to sell a sponsorship to Coke or Pepsi," Lanni joked. "I was on the losing side of that one."

Sherlock said New York-New York expects to "fill our rooms with high-gaming-profile guests," but will also emphasize slot play.

The Control Board also approved a nonrestricted gaming license for a new resort scheduled to open just two to three weeks before New York-New York.

Las Vegas gaming veteran Michael Gaughan, who built the Gold Coast and Barbary Coast hotel-casinos into highly successful ventures by catering to a mixed bag of customers dominated by local gamblers, was cleared to open his Orleans resort at 4500 W. Tropicana Ave.

The Orleans, incorporating features of the French Quarter and Garden District from the Louisiana city, will offer 840 rooms and suites, a 92,000-square-foot casino, seven restaurants, a showroom featuring country musicians and other amenities.

Gaughan said the resort will be "a little more upscale" than the Gold Coast, which has prospered by attracting a loyal customer base of local residents.

The Control Board also cleared American Wagering Inc. to operate Leroy's Horse and Sports Place betting parlors at Fitzgerald's, the Stratosphere, Frontier, Riviera and Royal hotel-casino and for those properties to share in any profits from the ventures.