It’s far too soon to sound the death knell for nightclubs and pool parties, especially with Hakkasan driving significantly higher foot traffic to MGM Grand. However, if the Las Vegas Strip isn’t already a shopper’s paradise, it soon will be.
"Potential tenants have not been named," wrote the Las Vegas Sun about Treasure Island’s mall, which "would include a pharmacy, retail shops, restaurants and an automobile salesroom." The wooden gangway around the Treasure Island lagoon will be extended to facilitate shoppers’ access. (There will also be a Strip entrance.) The design will be fairly consistent with the look of Treasure Island, per the Sun: "building materials would include sand-colored stucco, decorative metal panels and glazed windows. The roof would be flat with parapet walls."
The Linq has no fewer than 18 tenants listed to date. Ghirardelli and Polaroid are some of the more familiar names. The retail mix has been chosen to resonate with middle-class consumers, ones who might like to combine a pleasant dinner with some shopping, perhaps at Chilli Beans Sunglasses. Or, as Linq General Manager Jon Gray puts it in casino-speak: "Each tenant is carefully selected to ensure that the brand offering and its placement within the development help us achieve just the right mix of fun and discovery to create a truly one-of-a-kind experience on the 50-yard line of the world famous Las Vegas Strip."
Modeled (very loosely) on the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul, Bally’s Grand Bazaar will be a warren of multicolored canopies. Juno Property Group, its developer, hopes to have it open in less than a year. Swarovski Crystal will be an anchor tenant and two restaurants are promised. No fewer than five confectionaries and sweet shops will be run by L.A.-based chef Sam Marvin. In total, there will be a staggering 150 retail outlets.
Hershey’s Chocolate World will anchor the MGM mall, part of The Park, between Monte Carlo and New York-New York. "Roadside" eatery Shake Shack will also have a presence on the promenade leading from the Strip to MGM’s new arena (tucked behind New York-New York). Sambalatte Coffee House and "roadhouse-style bar and restaurant" Double Barrell will be grafted onto Monte Carlo. The retail component will include I Love NYNY (souvenir merchandise), Stupidiotic ("genuinely thoughtful and sensible" products) and Swatch (timepieces).
Which brings us to the "me, too" mall at the Tropicana, to built atop the casino floors. (Farewell, barrel-vaulted Tiffany glass.) It will also push the casino’s frontage all the way to the edge of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard. Not much is known about the prospective tenants and completion is two years away. There’s to be a five-outlet food court and 30 stores. Restaurant: Impossible chef Robert Irvine has been mooted as one potential attraction. A pharmacy will be the anchor tenant. If you have a sentimental attachment to the Trop as it is, you’d better hurry up and enjoy it while you can.
SLS Las Vegas hotel-casino is also planning a mall, on the former site of the Sahara. However, it is so geographically isolated from the rest of the Strip that it can hardly be called competition for Linq or even Treasure Island.
"We have seen a spending profile slanting toward retail, nightlife and restaurants and gambling has become a smaller piece of the pie," says Brian Gordon, of Applied Analysis, "a function of the offerings that are on the Las Vegas Strip." We’re also seeing less casino floor space dedicated to gambling vis-à-vis other amenities. "In the wake of the recession, consumer behavior has shifted to and they’ve tended to identify things more of value," instead of discretionary spending like gaming," he continues.
"It’s just part of the new market reality that has prevailed." In 2012, gaming was 36% of revenue, 25% of spending went toward rooms, and 23% spent on food and beverage, plus 15% going toward "other." In other words, the trend is definitely going away from gambling. "We need to be a little bit cautious in how we read into that data," Gordon warns, pointing out that spaces leased out or not owned by casinos don’t count toward the total.
