Cosmo attempts suicide; a big (Para)bounce?

Maybe Union Gaming analyst Bill Lerner knew something the rest of us didn’t when he predicted the opening of The Cosmopolitan (aka “Osmopo”) would improve business for other high-end hotels on the Strip. After all, what could send New Year’s Eve vacationers running into the arms of Aria or Wynncore like $5,600 for three nights in a standard room at Cosmo. What on earth is CEO John Unwin thinking? This is the Great Price Gouge of 1999 (when people stayed home in droves thanks to overpricing and Y2K fears) all over again.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, that’s more than double the most expensive comparable package at Bellagio, over 3X that of Palazzo and 5X the priciest deal at the Palms. With its bloated room count, the Cosmo is on the wrong end of the supply/demand equation here. I guarantee we’ll see Unwin offering last-minute deals to fill the rooms once the moment of truth arrives — especially since room rates swoon to $125/night in the cold light of January. Or he could go on TV and pitch this über-mega-ultra-high-end “whole new cultural paradigm” with that classic line, “Prices like these? I must be crazy!”

Last hurrah? Someone who’s closer to the Strip moguls than I, Steve Friess, contends that Cosmo has more than novelty going for it. It could be The Last Vegas Megaresort for the next 11 years, the last grand, $3.9 billion flourish of a building boom that was great while it lasted. Until about 2021, he argues, the biggest thing we can look forward to is Gary Loveman‘s Ferris wheel. (By the way, they’ll have to redesign it to remove that ginormous and now anachronistic Harrah’s logo.) While some of Cosmo’s amenities have a very de rigeur aura — yet another steak houszzzzzzzz — others are novel: a Greek restaurant on the Strip? Splendid. Friess applauds Cosmo’s walkability, its urban feel and the proximity of its casino to the Strip … no Aria-length uphill trudge for fanny-packers here!

Go fly a balloon. A company called Parabounce says it’s coming to Vegas, where it plans a vast $40 million aerodrome in the shadow of the Strip (out behind the MGM Grand convention center from the looks of it. That’d be news to the apartment dwellers back there). The planned, 100,000-square-foot dome would supposedly have room to keep 20 hot-air, mid-sized balloons aloft at a time.

Judging by the verbiage in its press release (“Additional properties are also under consideration.”), Parabounce has neither a site nor investment capital at this point — but it definitely has optimism. The company predicts a May 2011 groundbreaking, with money staring to roll in during 1Q-2Q12, with profitability predicated on 50% ridership at $20 a head. The blogosphere seems to love it, although I wonder at the appeal of hot-air ballooning under a big-ass, quilt-covered tent, thereby negating the presumptive drawing card: aerial views of the Strip and surrounding mountains. Bit of a conceptual disconnect there — although the promotional video depicts a translucent interior, so maybe not.

It’s decidedly different and if there’s one place other than Washington, D.C. that has hot air in abundance, it’s our beloved Sin City. It looks hella fun and I’d definitely try it — just not in one of those acrobatic-harness thingies.