Wynn offers inside look at new resort

By Jeff Simpson

Tuesday, April 19, 2005 | 11:15 a.m.

Wynn Las Vegas opens to the public in less than nine days, and the inside of the $2.7 billion megaresort already looks spectacular.

Wynn Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn offered the Las Vegas Sun a Monday tour of the property slated to open at the stroke of midnight on April 28, and the Strip's newest hotel and casino is almost ready for its debut.

Construction crews were finishing work on the property while Wynn showed off his newest creation, and hundreds of the 9,500 employees were familiarizing themselves with their new workplace.

Wynn said the employees are the property's most critical ingredient, and he thinks he's acquired the best workforce in the business, even better than the casts he assembled for his 1998 opening of Bellagio and 1989 premiere of the Mirage when he was at the helm of Mirage Resorts.

"The building is dandy," Wynn said of his chocolate-colored hotel tower and its many features. "It's a good job -- it's done. The building can't do anything more. It stands as is. But it won't be about the building. It will be about the people. It always is.

"Someone likes our flowers, or they don't. Someone likes our look, or they don't. It's exactly the position we've been in at the Mirage and Bellagio. It's up to our staff to bring the building to life for our guests. They'll experience the building through the rhythm the staff brings.

"Give me a second-rate building and a first-rate staff anytime, instead of a first-rate building and a second-rate staff. But if you have a first-rate building and a first-rate staff, you'll light it up."

The news media won't be allowed to take photographs of the property until the May 4 release of Vanity Fair magazine, which Wynn offered an exclusive first look. Wynn spokeswoman Denise Randazzo said Wynn decided not to do an elaborate preopening public relations blitz like he did when he opened Treasure Island in 1993.

Despite admitting some preopening anxiety, it's clear Wynn believes he's created a masterpiece.

As he showed off the look of the property's casino, restaurants, showroom areas, retail areas and entrances, Wynn beamed, but declined to say what he thought of his new baby.

"I'm too close to this," he demurred, but quickly noted that the Wall Street analysts, casino executives and Wynn friends who've seen the property as it's taken shape have been blown away by the hotel and its look.

"DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg was here four weeks ago, then again Sunday night," Wynn said. He said it outstripped Katzenberg's expectations, as did the other people who've seen it.

The look of the inside of the casino is almost exactly the same as the look of a mock-up casino Wynn erected behind the old Desert Inn in 2002.

Similar to Bellagio, tapestries and soft, cream-colored accents make the big casino seem more intimate. Unlike Bellagio, the Wynn Las Vegas color scheme incorporates a number of colorful accents, including festive tile mosaics on the floors.

Wynn said he wanted to make each separate space inside his hotel provide his guests with a unique environment, one that would engage them.

"We wanted a clean, sophisticated look, and to create a series of theaters, visually experiential theaters that stimulate the guest," he said.

Probably the property's most dramatic design feature is the mini-mountain that sits on the Strip side of the property, between Las Vegas Boulevard and the west side of the casino, restaurants and shops.

A dramatic foyer bracketed by curving escalators overlooks one part of the mountain, with brightly covered whimsical glass umbrellas suspended overhead.

The property's main hotel registration area overlooks a different part of the mountain, as does Okada, the property's Japanese restaurant.

Wynn stood in one of the sliding-glass doorways that separate Okada, named for Wynn Resorts Vice Chairman Kazuo Okada, from a serene pond that wraps around that wedge of the mountain. "It would cost more than $100 million to replicate this kind of a setting," he said.

The part of the restaurant with tableside cooking overlooks another mountain theater, a lagoon that will provide a dramatic backdrop for one of the resort's nightclubs.

The casino's entrances are separated from the fast pace and bright lights of the Strip by a lot of trees, flowers and plants -- transition areas Wynn said are key to the first impression made on guests.

The developer said he wishes he had more time to smooth the property's few remaining wrinkles, but believes Wynn Las Vegas will be nearly perfect for next week's opening.

"Having a hard opening date of April 28th was probably a mistake," Wynn said. "But we're going to make it. Everything will be ready.

"But I'd love to have another month to play with every part of it, adjusting the lighting and making sure everything's perfect."

Wynn plans to meet with each of the property's employees in three giant Sunday meetings.

"I can't wait to talk to 'em," Wynn enthused. "There's no newcomers here, but I'll be telling them that what we've got to do is go back to fundamentals. It's all about the guest."

He said 105,000 people applied for positions at the hotel. He estimated that 3,500 of the property's workers were recruited by Wynn Resorts, meaning that the 105,000 applicants were whittled down to the best 6,000 candidates.

"They're all jazzed," Wynn said, a comment that was reinforced by the beaming faces and appreciative comments offered from workers as Wynn showed off the property.

Wynn said he and builder Tony Marnell have learned a lot during the Wynn Las Vegas project that will make building Wynn Resorts' planned Encore resort much easier.

Slated to be built just north of Wynn Las Vegas, with groundbreaking scheduled for the end of summer, Encore will be better planned than its neighbor, Wynn said.

Marnell said the project was much more difficult to build than was Bellagio, and that his workers accomplished the mission in 30 months, six less than it took him to build the older project, the Strip's biggest money maker.

At Bellagio, Marnell's company staged the project from what eventually became the property's lake. At Wynn Las Vegas, he had no such luxury, and far less maneuverability.

"Steve Wynn put a mountain in my way," Marnell said.

"The building is vastly more complicated than anything we've done before, in its ambition for the guest experience," Wynn added.

Former Sheriff Jerry Keller, Wynn Las Vegas' security chief, said his staff will be busy for the next two weeks.

"There's not much time, and we've got a lot to do," Keller said.

Wynn said the reactions of people who've toured the hotel are one of two strong indicators of the kind of business Wynn Las Vegas will do.

The property's convention bookings are the other measure, and he said that bookings and room rates have both exceeded expectations. Convention-related room rates were projected at $236 per night but have been booked at a $245 nightly clip.

"And we could have charged more, but we wanted to focus on the quality of the groups," Wynn said.

He said his lineup of chefs and ability to cater exceptionally high-end events will separate Wynn Las Vegas from other Strip hotels.

"The convention bookers are the first group of people we attempted to show the property to," he said. "We have a five-star catering chef. As a matter of fact, all of our chefs are five-star or James Beard award-winning chefs. They're from Paris, from the Midwest, from New York. They came from everywhere."

He disputed a newspaper columnist's recent report that Wynn didn't like celebrity chefs.

"I don't like celebrity chefs?" he asked. "I got nothing but celebrity chefs."

Wynn bristled at the same columnist's contention that others who've viewed the property said its hotel rooms have giant plasma televisions that aren't visible from the rooms' beds.

"The televisions are right in the middle, aimed straight at the bed," he offered.