Venetian should be crowning moment for Adelson

Thursday, April 29, 1999 | 11:42 a.m.

Las Vegas might be headed for trouble.

That warning comes from Sheldon Adelson when he tells local civic groups about his reasons for building the Venetian resort.

"I'm absolutely certain we're not going to grow the way we have grown," he told the Latin Chamber of Commerce last fall. "For one, there is not much land left on the Strip, only one or two parcels are available, and no one has the courage to start another Strip."

With the spread of gaming nationwide, Adelson said 90 percent of the people in this country will be within 200 miles of a casino. He also predicted that the passage of Proposition 5 in California last year, which will enable Indian tribes to offer casino-style gaming, also will cut into Nevada's market.

"We have to change the way we do things in Las Vegas," he said.

The only expandable market in Las Vegas, he said, is that which caters to high-rollers.

"I call Bellagio the icebreaker," Adelson said. "Venetian will be the second one."

What separates the Venetian from the Bellagio is that Adelson is placing a stronger emphasis on convention-based tourism, featuring split-level suites with fax machines, computer-ready wiring and mini-bars. He defines his competition as the hotels in other convention cities rather than the megaresorts along the Strip.

His vision is that the Venetian will be a place where patrons will dine on champagne and caviar and have their picture taken.

"We call it a Kodak moment," he said.

Adelson is so proud of his resort he has led dozens of media representatives and gaming analysts on "hard hat" tours. Dressed in a hard hat, pinstripe suit and mud boots while toting a microphone attached to a bullhorn, Adelson comes across like the type of pitchman one sees only on late-night television.

As a tour guide he has a deceptively quick gait, sometimes walking so far ahead of the pack he begins to speak before most of the group catches up with him. His shtick is riddled with Borscht Belt humor.

"I'm going to do my best to give you a 20-wow tour," Adelson said on a recent tour. "Those of you who don't say 'wow' 20 times don't get lunch."

"That's the Bridge of Sighs," he said, while pointing to a span that is part of the facade. "They go into the casino, and they lose money and they sigh."

One is struck by Adelson's attention to detail. He will tell you that the buildings he constructed to replicate the Italian city of Venice were built to between .85 and 1.5 times scale.

"The gods of Venice will forgive us if we goof," he said.

He can tell you the number of columns in his replica of the Doge's Palace and the square footage of each room. He'll delve into particulars about the woven fabrics in each suite, the three-dimensional appearance of floor tiles, and the paint pigments used by the upscale mall shops.

There is braggadocio about how his mall will be better than the Forum Shops at Caesars, except that he never mentions the Forum Shops by name. He simply points across the street. He said the painted sky that graces his mall will always remain sunny and not darken at night like the competition.

"We hear that when the sky changes in the other place (shoppers think) it's time to go home," Adelson said.

Inside the casino he points to a painting on the ceiling, where a ribbon is depicted hanging over a balcony. He instructs the tour group to view the painting from different angles so that the ribbon appears to follow the viewer.

"I call it the Mona Lisa look because there are things that follow you around," he said.

Tour participants are frequently told why the Venetian will be the best hotel in town.

"This is probably the most ornate fast-food court in the world," Adelson said at one juncture. Moments later, he said, "it'll be the most artistic casino ever.

"It's full of richness. It's full of luxury. It's full of decadence, and it's full of romance."

The Venetian was the brainchild of his wife, Miriam, and was selected after other themes based on history or geography were rejected. He said his resort combines the romance of Venice with the luxury of Beverly Hills.

"I looked at presentations of Venice and it looked like a circus," Adelson said. "I didn't want to do it. She reminded me that Venice was where we went on our honeymoon."

Miriam, an Israeli-born physician who still runs a drug treatment clinic in her native country, quietly joined the tour group.

"My wife, Miriam, is an angel dressed up as a wife," Adelson said. "She takes the unfortunate addicts off the street and treats them because most other physicians won't do that."

Some gaming analysts have been concerned that the Venetian, which will cost $1.2 billion for its 3,036-suite first phase, could run into financial problems before reaching its planned 3,000-suite second phase. They say that Adelson's projected average room rate of $167 a night is far higher than elsewhere on the Strip.

He countered that his rates will be competitive with hotels in other convention cities.

"It's more than reasonable," he said, while sitting in a model room. "It's downright cheap. This room is twice the average square feet. The bathroom alone is 130 square feet. There are some hotel rooms that aren't that size.

"I spend a lot of time traveling around the world and copying a lot of details. I'm not ashamed to say I copied a lot of details for this room. To me it's at least a triple wow."