Casino group introducing ‘Mandalay Place’

Friday, July 25, 2003 | 11:29 a.m.

Mandalay Resort Group has signed leases with many of the 40 or so boutique retailers and restaurants set to open this fall in the skyway mall linking the company's Mandalay Bay and Luxor casinos, a newspaper reported today.

Over the next month or so, the company expects to reveal the names of the retailers, which will occupy an overhead walkway of about 100,000 square feet, Mandalay Bay spokesman Gordon Absher told In Business Las Vegas, a weekly newspaper that is a sister publication of the Las Vegas Sun.

The mall will be the second to open in Las Vegas this year. The Las Vegas Premium Outlets, a 435,000-square-foot outlet mall, opens downtown Aug. 7.

Mandalay Resort Group has so far been tight-lipped about upcoming retailers. The company is developing the project itself rather than partnering with a retail developer. It is expected to cost from $30 million to $40 million.

The retail tenants will be boutique stores that are either unique or among a handful of similar shops worldwide, Absher said, declining to name them.

"You are not going to find these retailers in other malls," he told In Business. "This is a collection of retailers different from anything in Las Vegas."

The company's 1,122-room second tower at Mandalay Bay is expected to open in November. The room tower and the mall, though both slated to debut in fall, aren't expected to open at the same time, Absher said.

The timing of the mall indicates that the retail and economic outlook for Las Vegas is on the rise again, real estate executives told In Business.

The retail addition is a "natural progression" for Mandalay Resort Group as well as for the evolving retail mix in Las Vegas, C.B. Richard Ellis resort broker Carlton Geer said.

"Retail and hotel revenues have been increasing at a rate greater than gaming revenues for a number of years," Geer said. "Las Vegas has been able to transform itself into a retail destination as well as a gaming destination. Retail is very important to the overall retail mix of what tourists are looking for in Las Vegas."

The mall will be called Mandalay Place.