Eight years later, Steve Wynn is still firmly ensconced at the top. Gary Loveman is hanging on for dear life and George Maloof is a sad-faced figurehead. And $2.7 billion for a casino resort (Wynn Las Vegas) looks like frugality after the sums blown on CityCenter, Fontainebleau, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and — oh so nearly — Echelon. Here’s a look back at a time when money was so loose and minds were so giddy that billions were spent to build hotel towers that will be demolished without ever hosting a single guest.
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Eight years later it looks to me like the boom is beginning again but this one won’t reach so far or fall again so fast. I hope this boom leaves something built to last, like improved transportation (driverless cars? high speed rail? an improved monorail that really goes somewhere?) and a really distinctive downtown. If not, it will be just more of the same old megaresorts that will soon go the way of suburban shopping malls and grand downtown department stores and movie palaces. Viva Las Vegas!
This newspaper article from August 27th 2004 in the Las Vegas Sun describes Las Vegas in the mid 2000’s: “Onward and Upward: High-rise boom possible for Vegas.”
Here is a quote from the article: “There’s plenty to buzz about with 50 high-rise projects, totaling 82 towers, announced or on the drawing boards which includes 30 condominiums totaling 44 towers.”
The problem with the “Manhattanization of Las Vegas” that happened at a very reduced scale was the miscalculation of developers thinking people wanting to buy overpriced condominiums in Las Vegas and owning a “piece” of the Strip.
Most people who come to Las Vegas like to visit once or twice a year three to four days at a time. Steve Wynn realized this a long, long time ago and that is why he is the most successful casino owner in Las Vegas.
Steve Wynn has accomplished many things. One of which is never talked about. He got Sinatra to leave Caesars Palace to come downtown to sing at the Golden Nugget. At a time when there was no appeal downtown. He knew – wherever Sinatra was, the gamblers would follow. I’m still in awe of this.
I’ve never felt the Vegas love for Steve Wynn. The Belaggio opened over 20 years ago. Wynn and Encore are very nice places but overpriced and boring to me. Thier contribution to the gaming industry is setting a higher standard for comped drinks. The Wynn/tax-break inspired era of Vegas as a fine arts center never got off the ground. What has Wynn done lately, besides taking the Chinese for a lot of moolah and buying a lot of eight-foot tall urns to decorate his casinos? Not much in my book. Wynn has become the crank old guy yelling for the kids to get off his lawn.