Whoa! Hold those horses! Not even MGM Resorts International can rebuild an entire casino-hotel in four months. (Four years, yes.) The $450 million reinvention of Monte Carlo as Park MGM is, at present, vaguely scheduled for "late 2018." MGM and its partner, Sydell Group, are being cagey with specifics, ambivalently promising to "build upon the property’s history, incorporating its European design influences" yet also foreshadowing "Clean lines [that] will define the architecture of each space, combined with classically inspired European furnishings and a robust art program."
Park MGM's name is a compromise of two titles that top management was mulling – The Park Hotel and The Park at MGM Grand. The number of hotel rooms will be reduced, from 3,213 to 2,992, "fully redesigned and renovated." Of those, 292 will be dedicated to a NoMad-branded hotel within a hotel, which will have its own drop-off area, swimming pool and casino, among other amenities. Interior designer Jacques Garcia's signature is the ornate, throwback style of European luxury spots Hotel Costes and the Royal Monceau hotel. NoMad's Eleven Madison Park restaurant in New York City sports the twin distinctions of being a Michelin three-star winner and the only American restaurant to make San Pellegrino's list of the top 10 restaurants in the world.
In the main portion of Park MGM, Eataly USA – a retailer of Italian cuisine – will have its first marketplace west of the Hudson River. This is a component of MGM's mission statement for the hotel: "to target a younger, well-traveled demographic seeking unique experiences and innovative design. Park MGM will appeal to this growing audience’s desire to be more social, connected and culturally aware." In other words, Park MGM is being pitched to Millennials as their new Vegas destination.
You can get some idea of what Park MGM will look like when its new, adjunct concert hall, the Park Theater (5,300 seats) opens "later this year." As for the casino floor, if we were to hazard an educated guess – and keeping in mind Park MGM's Millennial orientation – we'd say to expect more table games, fewer slots. Of the latter, we expect a significant number to be skill-based slots, which should have gained traction in the market by 2018.
MGM has been kicking ideas around with NoMad owner Sydell Group for three years and finally decided that the timing was propitious to go ahead with a Monte Carlo makeover. A relic of the themed-resort era, Monte Carlo had been mooted for a de-theming for some time; the Strip façade had already been demolished to made way for new restaurants, including the thumb-in-the-eye extrusion that is Diablo's Cantina. How MGM intends to reconcile those glaring add-ons with the new look of Park MGM is a question that has so far not been addressed (at least not publicly).
"Fortunately, Las Vegas is on a roll here and the market’s doing much better, all the properties are doing well and becoming increasingly popular as a destination. All of us want to continue to build on that whole maxim," MGM CEO Jim Murren told the Las Vegas Review-Journal by way of explaining the decision to reinvent Monte Carlo now. "What this does is bring a new dimension to entertainment in a form of hospitality that does not exist here with a group [Sydell] that has been an expert in doing that in key markets like New York, London, and Chicago."
Speaking to Jon Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Sun, Murren was even more bombastic: "This is Las Vegas; we are at the top of the list of entertainment cities. We are not second to anybody. We’re not going to have a property themed after a city from a far-away place." Alluding to the era of themed resorts, Murren used MGM Grand as an example. "You don’t see Dorothy and Toto in there anymore [an allusion to a long-removed animatronic display] ... Monte Carlo is the next example of us continuing our tradition of reimagining and reinvesting in our properties, and we’re taking the show on the road."
MGM President William Hornbuckle added that, once completed, the Park MGM model could be exported to other cities. (MGM has been courting East Coast markets assiduously, for instance.) Also, at age 20, it could be argued that Monte Carlo is long overdue for an overhaul, although one of the casualties of the remodeling juggernaut will be Hotel32, a luxury-oriented set of 50 lofts and a lounge that occupied Monte Carlo's top floor, created after a 2008 roof fire laid waste to Monte Carlo's topmost rooms.
Once Park MGM is finished, maybe sooner, major reinvestment in Luxor and Excalibur is promised. However, both resorts are so heavily themed that they will retain their overall name and look, simply being upgraded in as-yet-unspecified ways. Neither will be rebranded to the same extent as Monte Carlo. And, since MGM plans to bring some of the new Park MGM room product on line as renovation proceeds, you won't have to wait until 2018 to experience at least a taste of the new Park MGM look.
