Resorts support LVCVA

David Strow

Friday, July 16, 1999 | 10:31 a.m.

In a rebuke to Venetian owner Sheldon Adelson, the Nevada Resort Association came out in unanimous support for the $150 million expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The proposed project would add 1.3 million square feet of additional meeting and exhibit space to the center. Failing to complete that project, the NRA argued, would cost the city billions of dollars a year.

"The corporations I represent have invested billions of dollars in new properties, and have put their corporations on the line in support of Las Vegas," Jim Mulhall, vice president of governmental affairs for the NRA, said Thursday. "The convention center expansion is vitally important to match that investment. Future conventioneers will be looking years ahead as to whether we're keeping pace with our competitors."

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority estimates the project would boost convention attendance by 1.4 million people per year, with an annual economic impact of $1.7 billion.

But a Venetian official blasted that contention.

"There is no proof that any new shows will come to town," Andy Abboud, director of government relations at the Venetian, said. "They're simply displacing tourists who are coming into town already from one convention hall to another.

"If they do move (conventions) out of our project, we can go out and find new shows. But it is not the role of the Venetian to bring new shows to town. That is their job."

Las Vegas Sands Inc., parent company of the Venetian hotel-casino and the Sands Expo Center, has filed a lawsuit to block the sale of bonds that will be used to build the expansion project. Sands argues that LVCVA is bypassing the public by moving forward without a public vote on the bonds being issued, and says the association is acting in an "arbitrary and capricious way" by moving forward without any kind of financial planning. Abboud pointed out that the cost of the project has increased from $85 million to $150 million this year.

Critics of the Sands suggest the company is merely trying to delay the expansion of what it sees as a competing project.

"This statement makes it clear that the members of our association believe this is an important and vital project," Mulhall said. "It is important, amidst all of the posturing and storm and thunder, that we say what's important for this community. We are in danger of getting so tied up in the trees that we lose sight of what the forest is."

LVCVA officials say they hope to resolve the lawsuit within a month. It has threatened to sue the Sands to recover damages resulting from the delay, which could include costs of construction delays, the difference in bond costs and damages for lost customers.

The NRA represents many of the state's largest casino operators, including Park Place Entertainment Corp., Mirage Resorts Inc. and Mandalay Resort Group. Sands is not a member of the association. The NRA has close ties to the LVCVA and has the right to name three members of the LVCVA board.

But Abboud argued that those members wouldn't support the convention center expansion "at any cost."

"We have never said we are against the expansion," Abboud said. "We want to be in a position where we can support the expansion because it's good for the community.

"But I don't think anyone in the NRA would endorse an expansion at any cost, without any planning. That's exactly what the LVCVA is doing."