When MGM's CityCenter opens in late 2009, it will change the face of the Las Vegas Strip forever. The complex will feature three hotels, a luxury apartment building and a ton of gaming, restaurant and retail space.
And it's that retail space we're so interested in. CityCenter has wisely ignored the choice to name their shopping complex something tired like "The Shops at City Center" in favor of something a bit more mysterious. CityCenter's retail haven will instead be called, The Crystals.
The folks of Sin City are going to get a $40 million project that doesn't involve gambling, drinking, or burlesque shows. Instead Las Vegas will be getting a $40 million fine art program at the ginormous City Center by MGM Mirage, mega-retail/hotel/residential/gaming complex.
The amazing list of artists adding to the aesthetics of CityCenter include Maya Lin, Jenny Holzer and Nancy Rubins, who are collaborating with CityCenter's architects to create permanent site-specific commissions. This is the first time that ANY artist of this caliber will create a new work of art specifically for Las Vegas.
Additional pieces are being acquired for the program by artists such as Claes Van Oldenberg, Frank Stella, Henry Moore and others.
Long-time attendees of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas may have been doing a double-take when then got their room bill at checkout this year. They probably couldn't help but notice that Vegas has gone upmarket, with high occupancy and ever-higher rates.
How long can the hot streak last? The city's marketing mavens are hoping a new betting strategy will extend the good luck. Last week they rolled out a new catch phrase, "Your Vegas is showing."
Apparently meeting planners don't like the wildly successful current one, "What happens here stays here," saying it undermines their efforts. (Hmmmm, last time we checked there wasn't any shortage of conventions in Sin City.) The real impetus though, according to business publications, is all the new hotels on the way. The Wall Street Journal says:
"Some $35 billion in new construction that is under way or planned in Las Vegas is expected to produce more than 30,000 new hotel rooms in the next five years. Vegas needs to attract 200,000 more visitors for every 1,000 new rooms.
In other words, just appealing to the naughty isn't going to be enough. New ads will tout the city's shopping, dining, and other "tamer" attractions. The slogan is being tested in focus groups right now and if all goes well, "Your Vegas is showing" could officially start running in the Fall. Of course, it won't replace the most popular phrase in history "What happens here stays here" but rather run alongside of it.
We say just wake us up when it's over and booking a room doesn't feel like such a gamble.
We haven't quite gotten used to the possibility that MGM's mammoth Project City Center will be opening in the near-ish future but that hasn't stopped the press releases about the new hotels from rolling in.
Yesterday we got a release announcing executive appointments for the Harmon Hotel, Spa and Residences, a 400-room boutique hotel with 207 residences which will debut in CityCenter in Fall 2009. Interestingly enough, the group who will operate and manage this hotel is The Light Group, most noted for their nightlife options in Vegas like the newly opened Bank at the Bellagio and JET at the Mirage.
The hotel has been designed by the firm Foster + Partners and has already been accepted as a member of the Leading Hotels of the World, so they say. (That actually makes us regard that label even less, knowing that they give it to un-opened hotels.) The Harmon also said it will be "green" and is pursuing a LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Lastly, the hotel's biggest asset will be the first-ever Vegas outpost of Mr. Chow's, a celebrity hotspot in LA, NYC and London. A source says Michael Chow will personally design this venue and it will open in Fall 2009 as well. We wonder how the neighboring luxury hotel, the Mandarin Oriental, feels about that....
