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StumbleCosmopolitan on Strip to open mid-December
Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun
The new Clark County Fire Station 32 located at CityCenter sits in the shadow of Cosmopolitan on Dec. 10, 2009.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010 | 11:35 a.m.
A view of Harmon Avenue and MGM Mirage's CityCenter project on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009. The Cosmopolitan Resort tower is shown under construction at right.
The CEO of the new $3.9 billion Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas casino says it will open in mid-December with about one-third of its rooms delayed until July 2011.
It is likely to be the last major new casino-resort likely to open on the struggling Las Vegas Strip for at least a few years.
Even before the Cosmopolitan plays its first hand, executives and analysts say it must draw new customers who feel it is a must-see draw to Sin City.
Cosmopolitan CEO John Unwin said the hotel's amenities, including 13 restaurants, a spa, nightclub, 150,000 square feet of meeting and convention space and retail stores, would open in mid-December with the casino and the bulk of its 2,995 rooms.
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OK.......(1) Will it make money when it opens and (2) will any other casinos on the strip shut down by the time it opens?
no mention of condos?
the judge approved the last of the class action settlement yesterday.
do those who took the settlement feel foolish now?
Comment removed by moderator. Comment contained an advertisement.
I think I'd stay there before Citycenter. Seems more convenient.
we all hope it opens and hires several thousand employees...our economy needs it...let's wait and see if it opens in December, or waits until the traditionally busy January!
"Even before the Cosmopolitan plays its first hand, executives and analysts say it must draw new customers who feel it is a must-see draw to Sin City."
How unique and "must-see" can it be? It has the usual "13 restaurants, a spa, nightclub, 150,000 square feet of meeting and convention space and retail stores". Hey, a nightclub!!! And retail stores!! Woopee!
Like CC, this trouble-plagued development will merely cannibalize from existing properties and lower overall ADRs and revenues for everyone. UGH!!
As for employment, anyone know of people already laid off from CC? I do!
This hotel to tell you the truth... looks VERY SIMILAR THAN THE CITY CENTER...
Seriously, the strip needs nicer and "themed" hotels like the resorts of the 1990's.
Besides, originally planned, Plaza hotel should have replaced the Frontier open at this time! What is in the world? Not to mention, the opening date for Echelon should have been sooner!!
Here are new hotel plans for the strip.
1. IMPLODE THE TROPICANA. Replace it Constaninople. (Ancient city)
2. IMPLODE THE BALLYS. Replace it with Montreux. (Sweedish themed).
3. IMPLODE THE FLAMINGO. Replace with the Kensington. (English Themed)
4. IMPLODE THE IMPERIAL PALACE. Build a newer hotel with the same theme.
5. IMPLODE THE HARRAH'S. Replace it with Havana. (Tropical themed.)
6. IMPLODE THE RIVIERA. Replace it with the Rainforest.
7. IMPLODE THE CIRCUS CIRCUS. Build a newer hotel with the same theme.
8. IMPLODE THE SAHARA. Build a newer hotel with the same theme.
9. BUILD ANOTHER ASIAN THEMED RESORT.
There you have it. The plan on how the strip will look like by 2020! Help me make a difference!
Any news on who will operate the hotel? There have been so many rumors (W, Hyatt, Hilton etc). This one is going to be tough. It was difficult to pencil out when the economy was booming.
Cyrus992 : Keep Dreaming..
This is a very unfortunate thing to have yet another cold tower Hotel Casino in it's present plan. If I were the owner , I would change the whole concept away from stuffy high end approach to a return of the nineties themed resort. Perhaps make the tower look like the Empire State Building complete with the observatory and a life size King Kong holding on to the tower that tourists can go inside the ape body for dining and a panoramic view of the strip through the windows of his eyes. They could even add a circling little thirties style airplane around the building shooting at Kong!! spotlights all over the place! Now that's Vegas Baby!
OMG, no more themed joints! Vegas needs to get back to class of the past. Cosmopolitan should provide some of that class. Its just too bad its next to the behemoth called City Center.
Enviro_protector;
Come on.. .really.. when are we gonna see a boom again in hotel rooms? If my "capitalist" dreams come true... then the hotel owners would have less taxes and regulations and MORE TO EXPAND!
COME ON LETS MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!
This is bad news for every other hotel in the city. These are not more visitors, they are just staying in the new places. What we need is national and state policies that allow Americans to earn and keep enough money to come visit and vacation. With fuel over $3.00 a gallon there will be fewer and fewer visitors just like 2008
one more high end property! and there are plenty of those around! I agree with Cyrus992. Now all the new resorts look similar to me. Modern glass building. One can't even notice that The Cosmopolitan is not part of CityCentre! nothing to lure you in! :(
My hopes are that the US and world economy are improving and Vegas will come back to its former glory. Expecting another boon like in the 1990s is out of question, since such development is unsustainable.
The mega resorts need to learn how to maintain quality of operations by operating at lower costs.
Las Vegas need more international visitors, especially now, when most of the Asian market is lost. Targeting more Europe and South America might be a smart move.
We don't need any new hotel rooms - that's for sure, but since this thing IS going to open I'm looking forward to it. From what I've seen, it is way cooler and more upbeat than that of it's neighbor, CityCenter. I'd send my friends and family here before many of it's neighbors. Whether it makes money or not is not my concern, I'm not an investor. I think THIS is the spot that could be a great new/fresh property where CityCenter isn't. We'll see what happens...
Resorts like MGM Grand, New York New York, Luxor, Venetian, and Bellagio grew the market when they opened because they were all unique in their own way. People actually wanted to come to Vegas specifically to stay at them and see them because there was nothing else in Vegas like them.
The Cosmo is yet another sterile, oppressive blue tower filled with generic bars where you can pay $15 for a drink and restaurants where you can spend $100 on a steak. What is unique about it? What about is going to make people come here from the midwest and east coast suddenly feel they need to drop everything and plan a vacation to Vegas to see it?
Thankfully, as the article suggests, this will be the last resort of this type opening for a while. Time to move on to Vegas 3.0, getting back to making this a place like none other in the world where the everyman can come and feel like he can get a good bargain and be treated like a VIP. And time to get back to designing resorts that can ONLY BE FOUND IN VEGAS. If I want the Cosmo or City Center I'll go to Manhattan.
Yeah,another over-priced niteclub. Maybe a bebe and L-V store.
They do have something unique. NO PARKING
VegasObserver and gamblingfin:
Thanks for agreeing with me... and yes baby...
WE NEED MORE INTERNATIONAL VISITORS...
But we have to beat the crap out of Dubai and Macau...!!!
THOSE PLACES ARE MAKING US LOOK WEAK!!!!
Lets not forget... as mentioned before...
LAS VEGAS VALLEY NEEDS A BETTER ECONOMIC CLIMATE... THE BEST IN THE WORLD...
That means lower taxes, less regulations, less labor laws, AND MORE FREE MARKETS!!!
To solve the foreclosure mess:
Ban Bureau of Land Management from Clark County... TO STOP HOME PRICE INCREASES which means Fannie Mae will never strike again!!
Enviro--
I like the King Kong theme. They could disguise the CC towers as King Kong's mountain lair and string a cable car ride from peak to peak with some cool dinosaurs lurking in the jungle at ground level....or bring in the floating Island Mountains of Avatar!
Cyrus992--Yeah, rebuild the Sahara and Circus super-zized plus the Flamingo along with a Stardust instead of Harrahs.
(I hope Cosmo wont be the "last nail" in LV's you-know-what!)
Too bad they didn't hire us back in 2005 to give them vision. But then, in those days, "themed casinos" were passe, looked down upon in favor of sophisticated icy towers!
@cyrus992: Good thing you would leave Bill's standing. What a shame it would be to tear that down.
skerlahdee:
Yeah... the Bill's and the Casino Royale can stay.... it preserves the classic touches of the strip....
However... many still like the Flamingo.... some dont want to get that imploded...
THIS IS IT PEOPLE!! WHEN GROWTH IS SOFT... ITS TIME TO BRAINSTORM FOR NEW IDEAS!!! OH YEAH!! COME ON! MAKE A DIFFERENCE WITH ME!!
I like Aria and CityCenter, but then I favor modern design over traditional. You know, "modernism" has it roots somewhere in the first half of the 20th century..."mid 20th century modernism". I was born in '53 and recall the butteryfly chairs from that era, to name but one example. My parents and my father's parents both built modern design homes in the late '40's/early '50s.
The fact is most folks aren't drawn to mags like "Dwell" or "Cosmopolitan Home" as I am. Instead, they are at home at places like Ethan Allen Furniture.
So yes, instead of going high tech and modern in Vegas resort design, perhaps they should revert back to what most folks like. Red velvet curtains and Louis XIII.
What's the deal with near Christmas openings? Didn't work all too well for the Flamingo and City Center.
modern casino design is ok, but if all the new properties follow the same path, hey will not draw as many new visitors as the themed casinos used to... now Wynn and Encore, CityCentre, Fountainbleau, Cosmopolitan, and Echelon, all look similar on the outside and might not be able to bring the needed crowds in Las Vegas.
How about something unique to the strip like a gun rental and range like the one out on Tropicana near UNLV?
wouldnt montreaux be a swiss theme
Here is a concept that would draw visitors by the 1000's:
Free Hotel Room
Free Craps
Free Drinks
Free Dinner for 2
Free 4/1 bj
Free Entertainment
Cheapo from Argentinea
Boomer, visitors aren't what the casinos need. Customers are
It would be nice to turn back the clock to the 70's and 80's when Las Vegas didn't have all these big ticket items built on the strip. To me that was Vegas. Now its like a gigantic circus on the strip. Just to busy and to crazy and half of the casinos are in financial trouble because they went crazy building. Maybe Vegas needs some of the boys from Chicago to run things like they did in the 70's and 80's.
Unfortunately, the International customers (especially Asians) are not going to fly 15 hours on the plane to LV to gamble anymore. They have a closer venues in Macau. Those will never return again unless Macau decided to revoke all their licenses which will never going to happen.
Furthermore, no other ethnics have the gambling blood as the Asians.
I live in CA but used to visit Las Vegas 3 or 4 times every year. I haven't been back since 2007.
All the good values dried up. Cheap rooms, cheap food, good vp, and decent comps all disappeared.
All the mega corporations got greedy.
since it was mentioned a few times: Christmas time openings, when it is "dead" allow for "soft" openings... meaning, enough customers to give the workers the chance to find the best way to do their jobs, which elevators to which rooms, the shortcuts from the pit to the breakroom, figuring out there's not enough ventilation and that the lobby floors squeak, etc. Then New Year's Eve hits, they are packed, and no one's still figuring out how to do their job on the busiest night of the year... as well, you can't take write-offs for 2010 if you don't open and operate til 2011.
mid december? awesome, i'll be counting the minutes...
This is one of those deals that everyone in the industry said was not going to work before a shovel was even put into the ground!
Should be voted ugliest thing to built on the strip since Bally's.
It is a very boring looking hotel.. and yes it looks like its part of city center. It also kinda reminds me of some high rise apartment buildings in bigger citys. No wow factor/first impression like many other Vegas resorts.
The Nightclub + Beach Club that will soon hover over the strip will be something amazing. Pretty much the only thing competing against it will be the Encore Beach Club...but where are most of the people on the strip walking? Near Sahara and Wynn or Bellagio and Caesars Palace?
This nightclub will be just a beast of a powerhouse.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Kevin Lee | TAO
714.209.3387
kevinleevegas@yahoo.com