Let's say, for purposes of argument, that the casino industry has supped full on meta-megaresort development and needs several years to digest the feast. What then?
The answer, to judge by yesterday's G2E panel of design, construction and development experts, is not to stand still. Rather it's to find the near future within the past.
"We have existing facilities that are allowed to get tired," said architect Joel Bergman. Anybody who visited Luxor at the time MGM Mirage took it over from Mandalay Resort Group knows exactly what kind of dilapidation he's talking about. Prudent operators, Bergman argues, will realize that have to have competitive, well-maintained facilities.
Perini Building's Dick Rizzo went one step farther, positing it as an absolute necessity: "You can't let them get tired or they'll lose business." With operators like Harrah's Entertainment and MGM Mirage cutting back maintenance, this thesis is about to be tested.
Besides, tribal casinos are running up Vegas' back, we were told. Bergman says they're not only becoming more resort-like but, "Vegas has, by participating in these, created its own competition." Since they cater to discrete, relatively isolated markets, Rizzo added, their only competition is the patron's amount of discretionary income.
He also had a CityCenter story. Namely, that even while the foundations were being poured, it was still but a nebulous concept and the decision as to what to build was still in flux. Its hotel, retail and convention components have doubled from the original conception, Rizzo disclosed.
That shift of focus is in line with Rizzo and Bergman's concept of the future. The former describes the current crop of casino designs as "all entertainment-driven" because that's the new profit generator. Atlantic City and Las Vegas, Bergman noted, are "going to have to expand what we do well," by dint of expanding retail and convention offerings.
He sees an early 2010 comeback for the casino industry. But Rizzo warned that things will get worse before they get better: "The best we have now is a bear market really and the bottom is yet to come."
