citycenter

Vdara Hotel To Open With Celeb-Attended Gala

Filed under: Journeys

Las Vegas' big gamble, the massive CityCenter is finally starting to be open to the public. The Vdara Hotel and Spa is partnering with Vanity Fair to co-host a grand opening gala hosted by Sebastian Copeland with Orlando Bloom and Rosario Dawson on Tuesday in support of the Sebastian Copeland Foundation, a new foundation to explore climate change. Entertainment will be provided by DJs Donovan Leitch and Mathieu Schreyer and guests will dine on food from Martin Heierling, executive chef of Vdara and the hotel's contemporary Mediterranean restaurant, Silk Road.

Vdara is a non-gaming, smoke-free environment which is physically connected to Bellagio and adjacent to the ARIA resort. The LEED Gold certified project includes the 18,000-square-foot, two-level wellness spa, Vdara Health and Beauty. The hotel features a variety of stay options the most lavish of which are the two-bedroom penthouse suites which each have a full kitchen, a washer and dryer, flatscreen televisions and a bathroom with a soaking tub.

The 4,004-room Aria Resort & Casino will open on December 16. Many are concerned about how eager people will be to check out the new hotel considering that room prices are lower across the Strip and tourism is still down. The AP reports that including condominiums, CityCenter will have nearly 6,800 units open early next year. Rates at Vdara start at $129, $149 at anchor resort Aria and $345 at the Mandarin Oriental.

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Tags: citycenter, las vegas, las vegas strip, LasVegas, LasVegasStrip, vdara

Tiffany & Company's Glitzy New Store Design

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

Tiffany & Company showed off their designs this week for their latest store in Las Vegas, a new approximately 10,000-square-foot store at the CityCenter development on the Las Vegas Strip. The two-level store will be located in Crystals, CityCenter's 500,000-square-foot retail and entertainment district which was designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind and Rockwell Group. The store is set to open in December and will have an 85-foot-high glass facade which is shaped like a diamond. The overall effect is luxe with a bit of Vegas flash, the entrance will be gleaming black granite around Art Deco-inspired stainless steel doors and inside etched mirror walls, iridescent fabrics and glittering chandeliers add sparkle. The second floor will be reached via a spiral steel-and-glass staircase that is lit from underneath. There is a separate engagement ring salon and a private sales salon with can be reached via a glass bridge. This will be the third Tiffany store in Las Vegas there are two other shops on the Strip, one at the Shops at Via Bellagio and one at The Forum Shops at Caesars but this is the largest one yet. JCK Online has more pictures of the interior renderings.

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Tags: citycenter, jewelry, las vegas, las vegas strip, LasVegas, LasVegasStrip, tiffany, tiffany and co, TiffanyAndCo

What Will Become Of Dubai's Istithmar World?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

The sudden fall of Istithmar World, is one of the shadowiest and most interesting stories going on right now. Bloomberg reports that the Dubai sovereign wealth fund, is halting investments as part of a restructuring effort. The fund has been on one crazy decade-long spending spree of more than $25 billion that include shares in Yacht Haven Grande in the Virgin Islands, Barneys New York, the W Hotel Union Square in New York City and the Queen Elizabeth 2 yacht.

But as Dubai's fortunes have undergone a major shift in the past year or two the load of all those investments has become particularly onerous. One major burden is the CityCenter project in Las Vegas which Istithmar shares with MGM Mirage. Isithmar may end up selling the fund or some of its assets. Some say the fund will cease to exist which could put some of its investments in danger. Rumors of a sale of the Queen Elizabeth 2 and of a possible bankruptcy filing for Barneys have been swirling for weeks. For the most part Dubai tries to keep its financial flailings out of the public eye but that may not be possible this time.

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Tags: citycenter, dubai, istithmar

Banking On The Bellagio Brand

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

Like many other brands, MGM Mirage has decided to make money by selling its name. The brand, which has been struggling all year, particularly with the battle to get the huge $8.5 billion Las Vegas CityCenter project completed, is in need of some cash. MGM Mirage has inked 10 franchise deals with hotels carrying the Bellagio and MGM Grand name deals that will let the brand expand in a way that it could not on its own seeing as it is already $12 billion in debt.

The deals are a first for MGM Mirage. Two MGM Grand casino resorts are planned for Ho Tram, Vietnam and Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Other plans include Bellagios in Cairo, Mumbai and four in China. Bellagio, MGM Grand and Skyloft hotels will also be franchised in Dubai. These deals will give MGM Mirage two to three percent of gross sales with an additional 10 precent if a property achieves its profit goals. MGM Mirage is hoping that branded resorts will attract visitors even without gambling which means they will have to position themselves as a distinctive hotel brand that doesn't rely on a casino as a main atraction. What MGM Mirage and Bellagio do have that some other hotels don't is experience at maintaining full service complexes with restaurants, nightclubs, shops and entertainment all designed to make the guest so happy that they never want to step outside.

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Tags: bellagio, citycenter, las vegas, LasVegas, mgm grand, mgm mirage, MgmGrand, MgmMirage

MGM Mirage Decides To Give CityCenter Buyers A Break

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

Back in May we learned that buyers into Las Vegas' CityCenter's Veer and Vdara towers wanted an adjustment on their condo prices because of changes in the real estate market. At the time it looked like MGM Mirage was standing firm on their prices and MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said the company was going to wait until the end of the year to make any decisions because it was too soon to say how the market could shift. Something must have shifted already because now MGM Mirage has said it will cut the prices of condos. Bloomberg News has a quote from MGM Mirage Chief Executive Officer Jim Murren that states plainly that there is no denying that the real estate market has fallen dramatically since the deals were inked.

MGM is building 2,400 condos at CityCenter and some buyers have had trouble obtaining mortgages for the high-priced condo units especially since real estate values have fallen by over half in the past three years. Without mortgages many deals will be unable to close. Details on the condo price cuts are expected to be announced this fall and should provide some relief for buyers. So far 65 percent of the Veer Towers units are under contract and 45 percent of the Vdara hotel-condo units are under contract.

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Tags: citycenter, condos, las vegas, las vegas real estate market, LasVegas, LasVegasRealEstateMarket, mgm mirage, MgmMirage

Luxury Retailers Plan Move Into CityCenter

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

MGM Mirage has announced a list of retailers that will be joining Crystals, the massive 500,000-square-foot complex in the new CityCenter development. The Crystals facility is set to open on December 3 and will include most of the major luxury brands which already have at least one outlet on the Las Vegas Strip like Prada, Christian Dior, Bulgari, Carolina Herrera, Hermes, Roberto Cavalli, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Ermengildo Zegna and Versace. The center will also mark the debut of other stores in Las Vegas such as Tom Ford, Assouline, Kiton, Miu Miu, Paul Smith and Porsche Design. Other previously announced retailers are H. Stern, de Grisogono, Marni, Boutique Tourbillon and Mikimoto. Wolfgang Puck and Todd English will also have restaurants at the complex. This line-up puts CityCenter in direct competition with other shopping areas on the Strip including the Wynn and the Forum Shop. As 2009 rumbles on it is hoped that more and more luxury shoppers will return to Las Vegas; the city has experienced a sharp decrease in tourism. Figures released last month show that the rate of decline in tourism has slowed in recent months. The $8.5 billion CityCenter project has faced a variety of troubles during the construction process but when it opens it will be the biggest development Las Vegas has ever seen.

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Tags: citycenter, mgm mirage, MgmMirage

City Center Considers Bankruptcy Filing

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Journeys, Real Estate Developments

In January, it was announced that MGM Mirage was planning to scale back their City Center project, now the project seems to be in even deeper trouble. The $8.6 billion project has hired a law firm in order to prepare for a potential bankruptcy filing. The project is the Las Vegas Strip's most ambitious development, a 67-acre sprawl of hotels including a Mandarin Oriental property, residences, a casino and a huge retail and entertainment complex.

The developers, MGM Mirage and Dubai World, are expected to miss a $220 million debt payment due Friday and the project could file for bankruptcy within days unless an agreement is made. Dubai World has already filed suit against MGM Mirage, saying that its shaky finances put City Center at risk. MGM Mirage reported a $1.15 billion fourth-quarter loss this month and is said to be more than $13 billion in debt. Earlier this week the deal to sell MGM's Treasure Island casino to Phil Ruffin for $775 million was finalized.

As the Wall Street Journal mentions, even if the project does end up in bankruptcy it is likely that construction could continue or be restarted once agreements are made. No one wants to leave this massive complex of partially completed buildings unfinished and both MGM Mirage and Dubai World have sunk billions into the project. Also the city of Las Vegas needs the project to work both because of the potential jobs it creates as well as for the statement it makes that Las Vegas tourism is still thriving.

UPDATE: MGM Mirage has made a $200 million payment to the City Center project to keep the project afloat.

Source

Tags: city center, CityCenter, dubai world, DubaiWorld, mgm

CityCenter Scales Back

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

When it came out last month that MGM sold the Treasure Island resort, partially to save the CityCenter development, it seemed trouble was in the offing. Now the AP is reporting that the project, which is the biggest new development on the Las Vegas Strip, is now being scaled back. MGM Mirage and Dubai World have delayed construction on one of the hotels in complex, the 400-room Harmon Hotel & Spa. There was also a plan for 200 residential units in the hotel which has now been canceled. So far 88 of those units were under contract and buyers will get their deposits back. The hotel is scheduled to open in 2010.

The move is part of a general economic slump in Las Vegas that started with the decline in the real estate market and has worked its way to the Las VegasStrip. MGM shares are down 80 percent over the past 12 months as casino revenues have continued to fall. The other parts of city center including the 4,000-room Aria casino, a Mandarin Oriental hotel and a sprawling retail and entertainment playground are scheduled to open in December 2009.

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Tags: citycenter, las vegas, LasVegas, mgm

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