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By request ...

Posted At : June 24, 2009 11:40 AM | Posted By : D McKee
Related Categories: Cosmopolitan,Harrah's,Steve Wynn,Boyd Gaming,Fontainebleau

'Tis another day of hopscotching betwixt the doctor and the dentist, which sure cuts into quality blogging time (as did a nasty attack of fibromyalgia yesterday). However, by reader request, we present this special, (not) exclusive S&G photo of a special plenepotentiary Apollo [Mis]Management representative -- perhaps Leon Black himself ...

... contemplating piling additional money into Fontainebleau.

Serously, overspending -- not lack of business -- is what really got this town into its present pickle. Profligacy and/or dangerous incompetence at the highest levels are the true culprits for the Vegas meltdown. Yet it is people like maids, cocktail servers, security staff and -- by extension -- customers who are literally paying the price for clownery in the executive suites.

F'bleau and Cosmopolitan need to take a page from the Echelon playbook: Say "that's a wrap" and wait 'til the economy improves, attendant litigation is settled and the tsunami of new hotel rooms that is CityCenter has ebbed a bit. We don't need multiple new megaresorts now for the simple fact that the market will not support them.

Then again, if Harrah's Entertainment or Wynn Resorts wants to sail its luxury liner straight into the Big Bleau iceberg (or the Cosmo) ... it's their money. Just don't complain to the press when you can't get triple-digit room rates, 'kay?

Comments (Comment Moderation is enabled. Your comment will not appear until approved.)
Paul Shanahan's Gravatar When both Cosmopolitan and Fontainebleau were announced in 2005 their original cost was around $1.5 billion dollars for each of them. Over the next couple of years both of their original costs more than doubled to over $3 billion dollars for each. With the new economy (which started in September of 2008 with the failing of Lehman Brothers) how can investors except to get a decent return on a $3 billion dollar investment?
Las Vegas got to expensive and the economy fell apart. The investment banks loaned way, way to much money to both of these projects and hopefully someone will buy these and open them up but who?

I have to admit I was wrong on Fontainebleau but I still like that yacht out front jutting out to the Strip. You are definitely correct when you said the Fontainebleau is way to big for the 27 acres of land there it resides on. They should have made it smaller but instead of to little, to late the new phrase is to big, to late. I guess the Manhattinization of Las Vegas turned into a giant "shell" game.
# Posted By Paul Shanahan | 6/25/09 2:16 AM
David McKee's Gravatar Paul, just imagine the deep-shadowed canyon you'd be in if Aztar or Columbia Sussex had succeeded in building high-rises right on Tropicana Ave., directly across from MGM Grand. At late afternoon, it's plenty dark there as it is, thanks to the Green Monster.
# Posted By David McKee | 6/25/09 12:10 PM
Paul Shanahan's Gravatar I forgot about the redevelopment that Bill Yung had wanted to do at the Tropicana. I just looked at it on www.vegastodayandtomorrow.com and it looks kind of blah to me. Thank god Lehman Brothers did not loan them any money to build this contraption.

The one good thing about the $8.5 billion dollar City Center being built is it canceled numerous condominiums proposals that, if ever built, would be doing as well as Trump's "Golden Popsicle" right now. Keep up the good work.
# Posted By Paul Shanahan | 6/26/09 5:42 AM
David McKee's Gravatar "Kind of blah" is the nicest possible way of describing that mishmash of Olde Trop and New!Trop. Lehman Bros. would have been in for a rude surprise, as Yung proposed to build 10,000 hotel rooms and condos for no more than $3 billion -- at the height of the construction boom. Good luck with that, Bill.
# Posted By David McKee | 6/26/09 11:40 AM