{"id":5230,"date":"2010-12-02T16:28:50","date_gmt":"2010-12-03T00:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=5230"},"modified":"2020-10-26T07:07:54","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T15:07:54","slug":"cosmo-attempts-suicide-a-big-parabounce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/cosmo-attempts-suicide-a-big-parabounce\/","title":{"rendered":"Cosmo attempts suicide; a big (Para)bounce?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

According to the Las Vegas Sun<\/em>, that’s more than double the most expensive comparable package at Bellagio<\/strong>, over 3X that of Palazzo<\/strong> and 5X the priciest deal at the Palms<\/strong>. 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<\/a> in the cold light of January. Or he could go on TV and pitch this \u00fcber<\/em>-mega-ultra-high-end “whole new cultural paradigm<\/a>” with that classic line, “Prices like these? I must be crazy<\/a>!<\/em>”<\/p>\n

Last hurrah?<\/strong> Someone who’s closer to the Strip moguls than I, Steve Friess<\/strong>, 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<\/a> 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<\/strong>‘s Ferris wheel. (By the way, they’ll have to redesign it to remove that ginormous and now anachronistic Harrah’s<\/strong> logo.) While some of Cosmo’s amenities have a very de rigeur aura<\/em> — yet another steak houszzzzzzzz<\/em> — others are novel: a Greek restaurant on the Strip? Splendid. Friess applauds Cosmo’s walkability, its urban feel<\/a> and the proximity of its casino to the Strip … no Aria-length uphill trudge for fanny-packers here!<\/p>\n

\"\"Go fly a balloon<\/strong>. A company called Parabounce<\/strong> 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<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

Judging by the verbiage in its press release (“Additional properties are also under consideration<\/em>.”), Parabounce has neither a site nor investment capital at this point — but it definitely has optimism. The company predicts a May 2011 groundbreaking<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

It’s decidedly different and if there’s one place other than Washington, D.C.<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56,66,28,18,4,64,7,53,11,12,32,9,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5230"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28682,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230\/revisions\/28682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}