CityCenter Fever II

For those very few people who may never have heard of CityCenter, the basic exposition is laid out by Steve Friess. The Los Angeles Times goes heavy on the “urbanization” meme, although it strangely assigned its piece to a travel writer, not to Vegas-residing Richard Abowitz. The Crystals general manager, Farid Matraki, is pretty candid when he says, “God knows that Las Vegas doesn’t need another mall, so Crystals is going to be a very, very unique destination,” though he ought to have amended that to, “going to have to be …”

(The LAT also runs riot with not one but two photo galleries.)

On another planet resides Mandarin Oriental GM Rajesh Jinghon, who sniffs that — vis-a-vis $545/night rates — “People will want to pay that extra premium [for] the tangible and intangible service elements that they actually receive.” (Mandarin Oriental later slashed $200 off that price.) That the mega-project was finished largely on schedule is credited to CityCenter prexy Bobby Baldwin, who’s the subject of a rare profile — a real eye-opener and education for those of us who mistakenly saw him as a poker-playing crony to Steve Wynn and have been somewhat baffled by his being put in charge of MGM Mirage‘s biggest gamble.

Wynn dismisses former MGM CEO J. Terrence Lanni (and, by implication, current CEO Jim Murren) as “a hood ornament.” However, the more memorable quote is Baldwin’s Wynn-like explanation for why CityCenter had to be done: “This was conceived five years ago, see, and it was set way out ahead of what then was known as the marketplace. Even if it’s out a little too far, the world will grow into it right away. The world is a moving target.”

Not to be outshone, Murren gives his side of the story to the Las Vegas Sun.

Donny Osmond returned to the Flamingo in triumph from his Dancing with the Stars win. Savoring his triumph, he brought the coveted Mirrorball Trophy onstage, compelling sister Marie Osmond to caress it, as though to say, “Feel my power, sis!”