Local naysayers have been gleefully predicting the swift demise of M Resort for weeks now. And I’ll admit I even entertained a few doubts as we drove out there yesterday morning. I mean, unless you live well south of Vegas proper, you have to drive all to hell and gone to reach M. Was that initial fortnight of frenzied business just a novelty phase?
Boy, were my doubts misplaced. M was crawling with players and other customers at 10 a.m. on a Sunday, with lines soon forming for just about every restaurant on the property. That’s to say nothing of the number of people queuing up to join the players’ club. That was about a half-hour wait, followed by what must have an even longer one for the buffet, although my bad back was flaring up so fiercely that A) it played hob with my sense of time and B) I was sure I’d be leaving M on a gurney.
That buffet is no doubt one of the main drivers of M’s early success. (Savvy marketing is another.) Both in breadth and quality, it rivals the two buffets at The Rio, thereby putting it in the top three among off-Strip buffets. M manages the not-inconsiderable feat of putting Station Casinos‘ Feast buffets in the shade and the respectable Sam’s Town one is left completely in the dust.
Leaving M, you’ll pass the once (and future?) site of Gary Goett‘s Olympia Gaming casino-resort (above, as originally conceived), now retitled Legends at Southern Highlands. One billboard vows an April 2010 opening, which is preposterous, while another — right next to it — only promises 2011. As of this writing, not so much as a spadeful of earth has been turned. This project was announced before M but has slipped into the “believe it when it happens” category.
Donald Trump likes to sue but this time he’s on the receiving end. Depositors in insolvent Trump Ocean Resort Baja are claiming “fraud, negligence, unjust enrichment and violating federal disclosure laws” after the project blew through $31.5 million worth of deposits with nothing to show for it but a hole in the ground. As is quickly becoming the case whenever a Trump-branded product goes belly-up, the orange-haired TV star is claiming he had nothing to do with it.
