Monday, Aug. 14, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.
The Aladdin's total makeover to become Planet Hollywood can be compared to a complete home remodeling project. Except in this case the home covers more than a hundred thousand square feet and all of the time- and cost-consuming renovations must be done while guests are still happily enjoying the digs.
"We want to have better 'interconnectivity' between all areas of the hotel and casino," co-chairman of Planet Hollywood Resort Casino Robert Earl said Saturday at the hotel he plucked from bankruptcy in 2003. During a quick trip to town to check on the property (and review final details for the 2007 Miss America Pageant, which this week is expected announce a return to the Theatre for the Performing Arts), Earl led during a brisk walking tour of the heavily compartmentalized Aladdin casino and mezzanine levels.
We have known for weeks that work on the turnover from Aladdin to the more celebrity-fueled Planet Hollywood brand was behind schedule - it might not be completed until the spring of 2007. But now we have a better idea as to why.
"What has made this so time-consuming is all of the work has been done while the hotel is still operating. We could have shut it down, but with our high occupancy rates it would not have made any sense," Earl said, explaining why construction has seemed to inch along over the past few months. He also said the permit process for many of the construction projects has been snagged, as Clark County has been buried with such permits recently.
Earl led us into a few of the resort's more expansive projects. A temporary registration desk has been moved into the mezzanine level while the lobby downstairs is totally refurbished (a project that will be finished by October, likely). A massive expanse on that level - about 40,000 square feet - has been re-targeted and will serve temporarily as a casino, with plans to bring an ultra lounge (among other amenities) to the site.
Several new restaurants are planned for the mezzanine . Also impressive was the progress on the $20 million, 1,500-seat showroom (expected to be in full operation by the end of the year) that Earl says will rival any in the city and serve as an ideal complement to the Theatre for the Performing Arts, which itself is being renovated (once finished, the seating capacity will be variable - 4,000 or the current 7,000).
Downstairs, the walls that seem to serve no purpose other than to impede progress are actually concealing considerable work on a new main casino level - just ducking into a doorway reveals a gothic construction scene of dusty concrete and new escalators where Sinbad's Lounge once stood. When that project is finished (again, probably by October) the crews shift to the area of the casino currently in use and go to work there. And the escalators that visitors met at the casino entrance from the Desert Passage mall will have been removed, with a more wide-open and accessible entrance to the casino.
"Interconnectivity," in lay terms.
The entire Planet Hollywood resort (including the under-construction Planet Hollywood Towers by Westgate condo project) will offer 5,200 rooms, making it one of the largest resorts on the Strip. Earl plans to compete with MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay - once this pesky remodel thing is finally finished.
NoteMart
More on the tiara front: Miss America organizers would like to announce plans for the '07 pageant this week at the Miss America Outstanding Teen pageant in Orlando, which runs Wednesday through Saturday. ...
Riviera officials want to make this perfectly clear: The reason "CSI" moved the taping of its upcoming season-opener from their hotel to the Plaza had nothing to do with showing the Crazy Girls' relief (which famously celebrates the girls' backsides) on national TV. As longtime Riv PR man John Neeland explained, a CSI location manager said the show decided to use the Plaza rather than the Riviera because the Westward Ho building across the street is no longer giving off light (that's because the hotel is closed) and nighttime camera angles would have caught actors coming out of the Riviera's doorways in to a vast blackness. The Crazy Girls relief, if used, would have been tastefully covered (probably digitally) before airing and was not a major issue.
In Saturday's "Iron Chef" battle of Forum Shops and Caesars Palace restaurants held during an appearance by Masaharu Morimoto, Stage Deli beat the Palm in the finals.
The Thomas & Mack Center made official what we reported here (which means, in this column) a few months ago: Pride Fighting Championships is staging a card at the Thomas & Mack on Oct. 21. Pride (which, as Tom Waits once said, is big in Japan) is the would-be rival to the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the world of mixed martial arts. The challenge for Pride is not to be seen as the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) to the UFC's World Wrestling Federation (formerly WWF, now WWE). Years ago the WCW tried to match, and fell short of, the WWF's more widespread appeal.
This is W.A.R.: Famed sports prognosticator and Republican Party fundraiser Wayne Allyn Root will be honored by the Las Vegas Walk of Stars at 11:30 a.m. at ESPN Zone at New York-New York. Announced participants are Hollywood success story and renowned motivational speaker Rudy Ruettiger, gubernatorial candidate Rep. Jim Gibbons, former pro football and UNLV coach Ron Meyer, sportscaster Chet Coppock and the president of Root's GWIN Inc., Douglas Miller.
One of my TIFs (Tailgaters in the Field) spotted this "udderly" creative plate on a Ford pickup truck: COWTIPR.
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