In a less-than-shocking turn of events, Las Vegas Sands President Michael Leven has announced his retirement, effective the end of this year. Let the speculation over his successor commence! President of Global Gaming Operations Rob Goldstein would seem the obvious choice and he would ensure continuity in a company that has more than its share of executive turnover. Whoever is chosen can expect to report to Sheldon Adelson, who has made it clear — more with humor than wrath — that you’ll have to pry the CEO title from his cold, dead fingers. Leven’s tenure was ultimately a distinguished one, calming a company that was roiled with infighting and teetering on the brink of insolvency. True, he never found a solution to the unfinished stump that is the St. Regis tower and he finished Sands Bethlehem in quick and dirty fashion (although only after being shamed into it by Sheldon). But, with Adelson often seeming more preoccupied with politics than business, Leven provided a steady hand on the tiller.
“It’s the first time we built a building just to hold up a nightclub.” That’s Victor Drai, referring to the cantilevered structure that supports the pool deck atop The Cromwell. Some of us were skeptical that the former Barbary Coast wouldn’t buckle under all the extra weight. It’s a butt-ugly solution, one that suggests that the pool was Decision A and actually engineering it was a distant afterthought. Otherwise, Drai is mostly preoccupied with ripping Steve Wynn a new one, claiming to have hung up on the mogul recently. He says Wynn is overpaying the people who run his nightclubs, depressing profit margins from 69% to 17%.
