LAS VEGAS | Boom Project Rundown! 2.0

[mdiederi]

Juhl

[mdiederi]

One Queensridge Place

[mdiederi]

Hualapai Grand Canyon West Skywalk glass bridge construction.
http://www.grandcanyonskywalk.com/home.html

[vegasrain84]

Great Photos mdiederi!! I guess from the angle I was looking, it looked as though the crane was for another project..

So as promised I finished the Milam Tower, and uploaded it this morning.. This makes Stratosphere look tiny!!

[mdiederi]

Good job!

Damn, that is massive. I was down there yesterday looking at the skyline trying to visualize it, but that looks even bigger than I thought.

You should post that in the other thread too.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=121285

Is that top design considered a spire or a crown? Wonder if they can put a spire on that if they need to go higher than Chicago Spire? But it might look strange with a spire on top of that design. There's probably an observation deck some where up there. Wonder if those three pillars will obstruct the view or if you go inside those somehow? Intriguing.

[Daquan13]

Originally Posted by mdiederi

Hualapai Grand Canyon West Skywalk glass bridge construction.
http://www.grandcanyonskywalk.com/home.html

I thought that this was supposed to have a glass floor as well.

[mdiederi]

Originally Posted by Daquan13

I thought that this was supposed to have a glass floor as well.

Yeah, it will. See that space between the beams where the guy is welding? That will be covered with glass and you will walk on that and look down between the beams. The whole loop will be pushed out over the edge of the canyon using a "jack and roll" method. From the site: "The process of placing the glass to the steel is currently under discussion on whether it will take place before or after the Jack-and-Roll."

[ScottG]

seeing the comparison with the stratosphere, i have my doubt on the milam tower. just because of its enormaty. just one leg of the milam tower is ttwice the size of the stratosphere....i doubt the worlds tallest building (excluding burj) will be built in vegas. I'd love to see it happen, but this is just too large.

i read it would cost 5 billion dollars. and the design was inspired form the burj dubai (which SOM also designed)-- the replicated the 3 leg footprint...which we know exists in vegas all too much anyhow...




but just seeing how large this is- i dont think it could be funded. Just getting the ivana/summit built would be a dramatic change to vegas. but this is 10 times the effect.
new condo website www.citycenter.com does anyone know what they are goin to put on the city center sales office site and at the back of new york new york? - i hear the vdara concrete is being poured and excavation its goin on for the mandarin hotel.



btw i read that BruceH filed a complaint with the county over this project........theres a nimby amumg us. lol

(where does numby come from?)

p.s. great job vegasrain!

[ScottG]

.......
CASINO COMPANY DEALINGS: Abu Dhabi builder, MGM negotiating

Discussions center on luxury hotels

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
MGM Mirage, a Las Vegas casino operator, on Wednesday said it is discussing a possible joint venture with the Mubadala Development Co. of Abu Dhabi to build nongambling luxury hotels.

In a statement, MGM Mirage said it signed a memorandum of understanding with Mubadala Development, a company the Abu Dhabi government owns, to create a joint venture by the first quarter of next year.


The venture would build hotels ,beginning in Abu Dhabi, Britain and Las Vegas. Abu Dhabi is the largest of the seven emirates composing the United Arab Emirates.

Bloomberg News notes that Mubadala is an investment company with stakes in LeasePlan Corp. NV, a Netherlands-based vehicle-management company, and North African oil exploration tracts.

MGM Mirage said it expects the joint venture to create its own brand identity and use one or more MGM Mirage brands. The casino company said it would provide management and development services for the venture.

MGM Chief Executive Terry Lanni said in a statement that the partnership would help "expand our brand identity in rapidly growing international markets."

In a Wednesday research note highlighted by Reuters, Deutsche Bank analyst Bill Lerner wrote that MGM Mirage showed its strength with its latest news and its recent agreement to license its name for a $700 million hotel-casino expansion at Foxwoods in Mashantucket, Conn.

"(This latest news) demonstrates the strength of the MGM management team and its ability to procure strategic opportunities globally," he wrote. "Additionally, we believe this opportunity will allow MGM to monetize its brands while realizing a high-margin fee stream for development and management services, while Mubadala will likely fund the projects."

In a separate investor's note, Bear Stearns analyst Joe Greff said he expected MGM Mirage to profit from its new partnership.

"While details of the agreement are limited, we imagine the structure would be similar to MGM Mirage's arrangement with Turnberry for the Signature Towers, allowing MGM Mirage to realize returns from managerial and development expertise, and, possibly, landholdings, with limited capital contribution," he said.

MGM Mirage shares fell 7 cents, or 0.12 percent, Wednesday to close at $56.25 on the New York Stock Exchange.
.....

Another Harrah’s Bid?
Apparently $15 billion is not to buy you a gaming company these days as there may be a new suitor for casino giant Harrah’s Entertainment. The $15 billion-plus bid came from a pair of investment banking companies and the new bid, according to a report on CNBC from “unnamed sources”, is from Penn National Gaming, a company that manages more than a dozen casinos in the US and Canada. Following the CNBC story, lots of papers and shows jumped on it with some saying it’s true and other saying not so much. One wonders how a company like Penn, worth about $3.2 billion, could manage to buy a company worth about $15 billion, but there may be another deep pocketed player involved. No one involved in the actual bid, real or otherwise, is talking.

[ScottG]

SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS, DURANGO STATION, HARD ROCK, HARRAH'S MASTER PLAN, CAESARS EXPANSION, ECHELON NEWS


LOOKING IN ON: GAMING

Harrah's keeps plans grand, but quiet
By Liz Benston
Las Vegas Sun


Harrah's Entertainment has delayed announcing details of its center-Strip redevelopment plans, pending a potential deal to take the company private. But officials aren't sitting on their hands.

The company's proposed 1,017-room hotel tower at its Caesars Palace flagship is scheduled to go before the Clark County Commission on Dec. 20 for approval. Also proposed is a nearly 150,000-square-foot building to replace the Roman Plaza with casino space, restaurants, retail stores, bars and convention areas.

The convention center at the south end of the property also would grow.

Before dismissing these plans as just the latest baubles to be shoehorned onto the property, consider that Harrah's has still grander goals across the street, with the makeover of Barbary Coast, Flamingo, Imperial Palace and Harrah's casinos.

Harrah's spokesman David Strow said all the plans will be unveiled at once, likely next year.


• • •

Also moving forward is Boyd Gaming Corp.'s $4 billion Echelon Place, which has won design-review approval from the County Commission. It is about the same as the original proposal of five hotel towers and roughly 5,300 rooms. The approval includes the option of converting up to 1,000 rooms in its Delano and Mondrian-branded hotels to condominiums, although spokesman Rob Stillwell said the company still has no plans for condos and only included them in the plans for the sake of flexibility.

Boyd bosses initially nixed condos, citing concerns about overbuilding and demand for pricey digs. But condos can make expensive projects easier to finance. For example, MGM Mirage hopes to raise $2.5 billion selling condos at CityCenter, offsetting that project's $7 billion price tag.

County planners said Echelon Place's back side along Industrial Road will have an appealing "pedestrian realm." But they warned that the project's main entrance is destined for major traffic snarls unless the company redesigns it for better pedestrian access.

Meanwhile, Echelon business partner Morgans Hotel Group has received Planning Commission approval to upgrade the Hard Rock Hotel, which it plans to own by January. The County Commission will vote on the plan Dec. 20, which would allow the New York hotelier to build a 349-room hotel tower and more than 200,000 square feet of casino, retail, restaurant and convention space. The low-rise building will be built atop the property's surface parking, with some parking to be added underground. Morgans also plans to expand the Hard Rock's existing restaurants and add on to its parking garage on the north side of the property.


• • •

And wait! There's more!

Station Casinos received County Commission approval for Durango Station at Durango Drive and the Las Vegas Beltway.

Phase one will feature 400 rooms, a 120,000-square-foot casino, movie theater, banquet hall and pool areas. A second phase will include a 600-room tower, entertainment center and expanded banquet facility.

Station is mum on when it plans to break ground on Durango Station, and it may not happen for years.

Farther down the valley, the Southern Highlands Resort Hotel - a Tuscan-inspired upscale resort planned by real estate developer Garry Goett at St. Rose Parkway and Las Vegas Boulevard - received final design approval from the County Commission for the project's first phase.

Construction of about 1,400 hotel rooms and a nearly 120,000-square-foot casino (slightly bigger than the original plan) is scheduled to begin by mid-2007, with completion by fall 2009. While that's a bit later than developers initially stated, they are still bullish on a future phase with another 1,000 hotel rooms and as many as 800 condo-hotel units.

[ScottG]

anyone notice how there are so many hotels being covering in signs?

it all started with the luxor getting dressed with that hairspray musical sign...then mirage puts up Love on the tops of each wing.....then tony braxton is put on flamingo. a temporary show a the rio 'cavalia' is being advertised on the ballys and now a huge prince sign is being put on the rio....

im waiting to see a huge sign get put aclong the stratosphere...

[ScottG]

five hundy by midnight is reporting that the luxor is taking all but 2 egyptian themed stores, and might take down the sphinx in front of the hotel to replace it with retail.....the workers at the luxor are saying that they want to stray away from the egyptian theme......


might be hard considering the hotel is...a...pyramid...

[nsxdrift_89]

Hi everyone, long time lurker, first time poster.

I was wondering, has anyone seen any progress at the Cosmo site? I remember seeing pics about a month ago, with some foundation work in progress, but I was wondering, if they have any steel up, or if they've got a floor or two of the parking structure complete?

[vegasrain84]

Originally Posted by ScottG

btw i read that BruceH filed a complaint with the county over this project........theres a nimby amumg us. lol

(where does numby come from?)

p.s. great job vegasrain!

Thanks Scott! Its fun to work on them..

I also read that Bruce was filing a complaint. He is a real estate agent, so I can understand how he might think that such a massive project might negatively affect his sales on properties surrounding that area, such as Turnberry, Sky and Allure. But I think that it would mark a revolutionary shift in Las Vegas, and would actually open the door to further vertical growth towards the north strip.

Unfortunatly, a project like this with over 5000 units would require at least 5000 new jobs in high paying industries to allow the residents who want to move into such a large project to do so. Most units cost over $600,000 and require people to move from other areas of the country. I doubt your average casino worker or retail worker on which the Las Vegas economy is based would be able to afford any strip condo.. So they would have to be retirees, millionaires or at least people who are making 6 digit salarys of which there are not that many.. So I just dont see how this place could sustain itself.. People have to work somewhere to be able to afford these places, and Vegas is a service based economy, the numbers just don't add up.

On the nimby issue, NIMBY is an acronym for Not in My Back Yard..

[Daquan13]

Originally Posted by mdiederi

Yeah, it will. See that space between the beams where the guy is welding? That will be covered with glass and you will walk on that and look down between the beams. The whole loop will be pushed out over the edge of the canyon using a "jack and roll" method. From the site: "The process of placing the glass to the steel is currently under discussion on whether it will take place before or after the Jack-and-Roll."

So you're saying that the whole thing will be supported over the edge and people on it will be able to look straight down into the canyon? Cool!!

[ScottG]

i would think that the 2nd worlds tallest building would ATTRACT people to live near by.....having that out my window would be nice! (?)

[vegasrain84]

Originally Posted by Daquan13

So you're saying that the whole thing will be supported over the edge and people on it will be able to look straight down into the canyon? Cool!!

Here is how the skywalk will look when finished..

[ScottG]

if you go to http://www.cosmolv.com under the retail/shopping section (at the bottom) you can check out floorplans of the 3 level podium....casino and mall

[LMich]

Originally Posted by ScottG

i would think that the 2nd worlds tallest building would ATTRACT people to live near by.....having that out my window would be nice! (?)

At the current time, it's the third tallest building in the world either proposed or under construction after the Burj Dubai and Chicago Spire. I have extreme doubts about the viability of the project, though.

[mdiederi]

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_ho.../11175192.html

Study: Airport can't deliver on tourism demands
Dec. 02, 2006
Las Vegas Review-Journal

By BENJAMIN SPILLMAN

Shorter buffet lines and desolate casino floors could be in the cards at many Strip hotels as early as 2010 unless something is done to bypass heavy congestion at Southern Nevada's largest airport.

Researchers at the investment firm Deutsche Bank say that if hotel development continues at its current pace, Las Vegas resorts could face a shortfall of up to 7 million visitors annually by 2017, the soonest a new airport could be up and running.

That would leave operators of the latest and greatest megaresorts to cannibalize the customer base of existing casinos to make ends meet, said authors of a Nov. 30 report on the issue distributed to investors.

It's a scenario that would hit everyone from board room executives to parking garage valets squarely in the wallet.

"It is going to be extremely tight, and someone might lose," said Deutsche Bank research analyst Bill Lerner. "There are just all kinds of implications."

Lerner and Grant Govertsen, another researcher, said the report is the most detailed look to date at the airport crunch from the perspective of gaming company investors.

They urged developers to be cautious when planning new rooms and suggested that tourism boosters do more to increase the number of people who come to Las Vegas by car.

Airport officials said Friday that the authors painted an overly pessimistic picture of the future. "You could do anything with numbers depending on the assumptions you project," said Rosemary Vassiliadis, Clark County deputy director of aviation.

The report's authors project a short-term annual shortfall of about 600,000 visitor arrivals by 2010. But that will be alleviated by the addition of a new terminal in 2011.

Once the new terminal is in place, Vassiliadis said, technology improvements in tracking planes, airspace expansions and airport streamlining will keep pace with growth until 2017. That's the earliest a $7 billion airport could be operating in the Ivanpah Valley between Jean and Primm.

"There is no reason for me to believe we will not keep rolling along," Vassiliadis said.

Currently more than 44 million people arrive and depart annually from McCarran, the fifth busiest airport in the United States.

Air passengers represent 47 percent of the visitors who occupy the city's approximately 136,000 hotel rooms.

McCarran officials say the airport can handle 53 million arrivals and departures annually, a figure it could reach by 2011 or sooner.

But hotel operators plan to add another 41,746 hotel rooms by the end of 2012, according to the report.

To maintain occupancy in existing hotels and fill the new rooms would take about 23.3 million visitor arrivals at McCarran in 2012, Lerner and Govertsen estimated. The airport, however, will reach capacity at about 21.2 million visitor arrivals, leaving hotel operators to look elsewhere for about 2.1 million customers, they said.

The discrepancy between the number of people needed to maintain existing growth rates and the capacity at the airport would grow until 2017.

As that happens, competition would intensify as casino operators looked at each other's customers as a source of new income.

The capacity crunch at McCarran also could increase the cost of tickets to Las Vegas. That, combined with intensifying competition, would hit older, value-oriented properties hardest.

"It is pretty far off. But it is something we continue to evaluate," said Mark Lefever, chief financial officer of the Riviera, which has more than 2,000 rooms and more than 2,500 Las Vegas employees to support.

Lefever said he was confident the property would continue to find customers. "There are still a whole bunch of people coming by car," he said. "This town will be fine."

Others said that counting on a new airport operating in the Ivanpah Valley by 2017 was an optimistic assumption.

The proposed location is close to the Mojave National Preserve, a 1.6 million-acre refuge in California. Environmental groups question whether an airport ferrying up to 35 million people annually should be placed next to a national park known for desert solitude.

"It does seem like it is a fairly fast turnaround when you are looking at the significant environmental issues involved here," said Ron Sundergill, Pacific region director of the National Park Conservation Association. "You have this major asset which needs to be protected."

Lerner said projecting airline traffic and hotel development more than 10 years into the future is difficult and resulted in numbers that could change depending on countless factors.

But that didn't change the core point of the report. "I know we are splitting hairs on specific numbers" he said. "But the over-arching point is it is going to be real tight."

TOURISM GAP PREDICTED TO WIDEN

Las Vegas will be unable to maintain annual 4 percent increases in hospitality growth and visitor traffic without a solution to the upcoming air passenger capacity crunch at McCarran International Airport. Here’s a look at how many air visitors are needed to maintain the current development pace and the projected shortfall until 2017, the earliest a new airport could open.

Visitor arrivals required Shortfall
2010 21.5 million 600,000+
2011 22.4 million 800,000+
2012 23.3 million 2.1 million
2013 24.2 million 3 million
2014 25.1 million 4 million
2015 26.1 million 5 million
2016 27.2 million 6 million
2017 28.3 million 7 million

Source: Deutsche Bank