Station Casinos has filed its latest set of plans for Durango Station and it looks like they’ve pulled back a bit, although you can judge for yourself. Hotel inventory has been reduced from 1,040 rooms, then 1,000, to 726; the smaller of the two towers has been scaled back an additional 10 feet in height.
Bingo players will be displeased, as a bingo room has been scrapped; ditto a bowling alley. Two fewer reasons to go there, IMO.
Rather than wait, though, Station will go ahead straightaway with the second of two parking garages. Even with 4,048 covered spaces, Station is also budgeting for over 2,100 surface-parking spaces, causing Clark County planners some minor qualms over the oceans of asphalt surrounding Durango Station and the pedestrian hazard they could represent.
Joe Hasson, Aliante Station GM
Carol Thompson, Aliante’s assistant GM
On the executive front, Station has selected the general manager and assistant GM for Aliante Station. They are, respectively, Joe Hasson and Carol Thompson. The former boss of Harrah’s New Orleans, Hasson — who Casino Executive Magazine once described as “whippet-thin” (and who, if memory serves, is a marathon runner), comes to Aliante from a lengthy tenure at Green Valley Ranch. If he looks familiar, it’s because he was a regular on the Discovery Channel’s American Casino, filmed at GVR. Thompson, who is active in local philanthropy, honed her managerial school at some of Station’s “farm team” properties, such as Barley’s.
The only question remaining is this: If Aliante Station cost $675 million, why was Cannery Casino Resorts able to build Eastside Cannery for $425 million less? Yes, Aliante has a concert hall and a 16-screen cineplex. But ECan has 105 more hotel rooms, more meeting space and an equal number of restaurants. (It also boasts a spa and a bingo room, items not listed among Aliante’s amenities.)
ECan also makes a bolder, striking architectural statement, the jagged parapet of its hotel tower serrating the sky. Aliante’s outward style might be described as Office Park Chic.
Station just doesn’t seem to be getting nearly as much bang for its buck. How come?
Very disappointed that Durango station does not have a bingo room