At a time when the bottom has fallen out of Las Vegas Strip land prices what possessed Brett Torino to make an uncontested, above-market bid for a small and awkwardly configured piece of Strip real estate?
Before we get to the answer, a bit of history. Way back when — even before yours truly moved here — Clark County obtained the northeast corner of Harmon Avenue and the Strip, with an eye to eventually rerouting Harmon into a megaresort that Steve Wynn was expected to build south of Bellagio. Time passed and it took the county more than 10 years to actually reconfigure Harmon as planned — by which time it had become a conduit into and through CityCenter.
While the county dithered, the Sommer Trust had embarked on a costly re-do of the Aladdin, under the direction of Richard Goeglein (currently chairman of Pinnacle Entertainment). Among many odd design choices that Goeglein and Jack Sommer elected upon, the most bizarre was to build around the county’s acreage in such a way as to leave a massive, blank-walled indentation in the Aladdin’s southwest façade. The resultant butt-ugliness would be one of the Strip’s worst eyesores and its never-attempted remediation was among the balls dropped by subsequent owner Robert Earl, who now joins Goeglein, Sommer and London Clubs International among those who failed to produce a genie from Aladdin’s lamp.
With Harmon (finally) rerouted, exit the county and enter Torino. His new acreage is too small and far too narrow to build anything of consequence — maybe a mall of schlock shops, if that’s his fancy. But it seems pretty clear that he’s got a different gambit in mind.
Despite corporate protestations to the contrary, the interposition of the Barbary Coast between the Flamingo and Bally’s Las Vegas clearly chafed at Harrah’s Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman — so much so that he eventually paid $19.5 million an acre for it and bought a couple of north Strip parcels as gifts, the better to persuade Boyd Gaming to part with the place. So Torino is all but certainly gambling that if he just sits on that thumb-like Harmon parcel long enough, he can force Loveman to the bargaining table.
As further enticement, he can offer 18 acres immediately to the south, now worth only $141 million. But Torino’s got creditors chewing on his ass to liquidate that land, so any sort of Torino-to-Harrah’s flip would have to come together fast. Still, when you consider that the aggregate 20 acres in question would put Loveman sitting smack-dab across the street from CityCenter, I’d be surprised if he’s not got his people talking to Torino’s people this very moment. Worst-case scenario, the lure of Torino’s two Planet Hollywood-adjoining acres (and the chance to unify that block) will prove too great a lure for Loveman to resist.
Advantage: Torino.
Carlino’s big score. During a flat month for Indiana, the clear winner was Penn National Gaming‘s new Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg, up 9%. Its $36 million haul also puts it in the select company of Harrah’s Horseshoe Hammond, at the northern end of the state, which hauled aboard $42 million. Every southern Indiana riverboat took it on the kisser (i.e., -5% to -11) Hollywood, save for Casino Aztar which defied the odds for a 2% increase. The best thing Carl Icahn‘s people could do for Aztar is just keep on what trustee Robert Dingman‘s been doing.
I was touring the Erotic Heritage Museum, when my guide, doctoral student Amanda Morgan, made the following observation: “As you know, Nevada is very conservative. If you look at the population of people in Las Vegas and looked at the type who are involved in higher government, it might give you some insight into why they’re so conservative.”
Kitty-korner from Bally’s Las Vegas is the former site of Bourbon Street, long since imploded by Harrah’s Entertainment and not the least bit missed. It had 
“Unfortunately, people come to hotels or motels to commit suicide, to commit crimes, to do drugs, prositution.” — former Queen of Hearts owner Ann Meyers, representing for the Nevada hotel industry. If that was her audition to be the new Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority spokeswoman, she needn’t bother waiting for a callback.
As you 
Leach adds that William Weidner (left) also recently purged from Sheldon Adelson‘s palace guard, is shopping himself around Macao. In light of Weidner’s culturally maladroit performance during the Richard Suen trial, he’s got a lot of spinning to do. (Memo to Leach: It’s Venetian Macao, not “Macau.” Like S&G, Sands hews to the more traditional spelling.)
While we in Las Vegas struggle to reconcile long nightclub lines and (depending on which casino you visit) full gaming floors with but smallish increases in revenue and visitation, it’s one big-ass Christmas over in Macao. Revenue skyrocketed 63% last month, far higher than expected. And while S&G puts little emphasis on sequential gains (0r losses) in gambling dollars, a 24% upward leap from December is indicative that the casino boom is back along the banks of the Pearl River delta.
“We expect that Clark County will lag the nation in employment growth by 12 months or so. We do not expect to see job growth nationally until well into next year. This means we will not see measurable job growth in Clark County until 2011. Look for retail trade jobs to be lost in the coming months.” — Mary Riddel, interim director of the Center for Business & Economic Research at UNLV.
… and you get — a Wayne Newton!
