Thursday, April 28, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
STRIP MEGARESORT: Wynn creation opens
Countdown inaugurates hotel's start
By HOWARD STUTZ
GAMING WIRE
Crowds file into Wynn Las Vegas today after the marquee counts down just after midnight.
Photo by K.M. Cannon.
Salon Suites, left, are equipped with a conference table for 10 and expanded catering services.
COURTESY OF WYNN LAS VEGAS
A typical room in the Tower Suites, center, has the feel of a residential apartment.
COURTESY OF WYNN LAS VEGAS
Most rooms, including the Executive Suites, offer Internet telephones, fax, high-speed Internet access and flat-screen LCD HDTV.
COURTESY OF WYNN LAS VEGAS
Workers at Wynn Las Vegas stroll across a bridge Wednesday night before the midnight opening of the $2.7 billion resort.
Photo by K.M. Cannon.
Five years of design, construction and mystery came to an end at 12:01 this morning. But was it worth the wait?
The opening of the $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas drew several large crowds Wednesday evening.
Ordinary folks waited near the main entrances for the public unveiling shortly after midnight, and more than 2,000 guests paid either $7,500 or $1,500 for a private grand opening charity gala.
The gala included a sampling of food from the property's signature restaurants and the premiere of "Le Reve," the Franco Dragone-directed water-themed production show.
Michael and Julie Cenko of Las Vegas started waiting outside the megaresort at 4 p.m. in hopes of being among the first inside.
"I'm going in with zero expectations, just ready to enjoy myself," Michael Cenko said. "If what they have is half as good as the hype, it will be worth it."
Tinkering up to the last minute, developer Steve Wynn, interviewed about 10 minutes after midnight, said the public opening was delayed slightly while workers arranged trash receptacles for people to toss their beer cans.
Then Wynn quickly observed the public response.
"It's always fascinating to watch people enter the thing and get their first moment after we open the doors," Wynn said. "What I think about it is irrelevant at this point. The place has been turned over to the public."
The resort's 2,716 rooms and suites open today for paying guests. By this weekend, Wynn Las Vegas will be a packed house.
Unlike the first nights of other Strip resorts, fireworks were not planned. A simple countdown on the Wynn Las Vegas marquee on Las Vegas Boulevard signaled the opening.
Bob Maheu, former right-hand man to multimillionaire Howard Hughes, who once owned the Desert Inn, the site of Wynn Las Vegas, was impressed.
"I think Howard Hughes would have loved this," Maheu said. "He wasn't a builder, he was a buyer. I think Steve did a fabulous job."
Monday and Tuesday of this week were reserved for "employee play-days," where workers and family members took turns acting as guests, staying in the rooms, eating in the restaurants and gambling in the casino with fake money to ensure all of the opening night bugs would be worked out of the system.
For Wynn, the opening of the Strip's most expensive property could be termed anticlimactic.
Other than the last-minute tinkering for which he has become famous, the casino developer already was making plans for his next project: the $1.4 billion, 2,000-room Encore, which will break ground this summer next to Wynn Las Vegas.
"To me, these places and life are an exercise," Wynn said. "You're always testing your potential, and, by definition, you should never be satisfied. But if you're a true student of what you're doing and a lover of your business activity, then you study what you've done to understand what you could have done better."
He said he always has focused on the next development, which is one reason why Wynn Las Vegas took five years to complete.
He knows visitors to Wynn Las Vegas will be comparing the property with others he has developed and to what follows.
"The question is, `Physically, is there a comparison?' " Wynn said. "That's a fair question. But there is nothing worse than a developer talking about their own stuff. The language just gets exhausted. `Five star,' `world class,' all that kind of talk. Who doesn't say that? Every schmuck with a Motel 6 has the same crap."
Bill Thompson, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor who specializes in gaming, said the Wynn Las Vegas opening easily could be termed, "the city's most important opening to date."
Thompson said that unlike previous openings when Wynn relied on some sort of gimmick -- he imploded the Dunes in 1993 for the opening of Treasure Island -- the hotel is the story.
"Steve Wynn's openings are always a catalyst for something else," Thompson said. "This opening is truly the largest the city has seen because it's been a while since we've had something like this and it's the start of another new (building) wave. With other new casinos, you kind of knew what they were going to have. This is much larger."
Unlike the MGM Grand, which opened as a nonunion resort in 1993, and nonunion The Venetian in 1999, labor union pickets complaining about the treatment of workers did not disrupt the opening of the unionized Wynn Las Vegas.
"Wherever (Las Vegas Sands Corp. and The Venetian Chairman) Sheldon Adelson goes, a lawsuit seems to follow," Thompson said. "That doesn't happen with Steve Wynn."
For the past six months, Strip resorts have been running close to 100 percent occupancy on the weekends, tourism officials said.
So the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority welcomes the added 2,716 rooms from Wynn Las Vegas.
Terry Jicinsky, the convention authority's senior vice president of marketing, said officials would have difficulty determining whether Wynn Las Vegas is reason for any increased visitation this weekend or subsequent weekends.
But visitor studies have shown that tourists will flock to new attractions.
"Clearly, Wynn Las Vegas is going to drive foot traffic on the Strip," Jicinsky said. "We know people will want to check out the new property."
Wynn Las Vegas is the fourth Strip resort Wynn has built. The Mirage, Bellagio and Treasure Island were sold to MGM Grand in 2000. But Wynn does not long for his former properties.
"I never identify with these projects," Wynn said. "I don't identify with buildings. Every time I built a new hotel, I moved into the new one.
"The Golden Nugget (Wynn's first major resort development) was my life from 1973 to 1989, but when The Mirage opened, I didn't go downtown more than twice a year."
Still, he admits to being proud of what he has brought to Las Vegas.
"I look at the fountains (at Bellagio) and say, `What a cool thing,' " Wynn said. "I'm happy to have played a part in bringing them here."
His wife, Elaine Wynn, wandered the resort Wednesday evening, administering to last-minute details.
"I am elated. We have major events over the next three days, and I am in charge of them," she said. "I'm just making sure everything is ready to go."
Steve Wynn said the one drawback in building Wynn Las Vegas was not having another resort that could help offset startup costs.
About 10,000 workers had to be hired, and computer systems and equipment had to be bought.
"Whenever you had sister properties, it was an advantage of millions upon millions of dollars," he said. "The good news is that we're using the highest tech systems. The bad news is they are expensive and making them work is a daunting challenge."
Those waiting along the resort's Strip and Sands Avenue entrances Wednesday evening were able to gamble in the casino and tour the property once let inside.
Most of the visitors were expected to head toward views of the $130 million man-made mountain, from the hotel side. The richly vegetated design that, from the Strip, hides much of Wynn Las Vegas' lower levels, is the focal point of the resort.
Review-Journal writer Chris Jones contributed to this report.
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The hotel stands nearly fifty stories above the Las Vegas valley, with a 180-foot tall mountain in front of the main entrance.
The world's most expensive hotel-casino ever has opened in Las Vegas, Nevada. The casino, which was designed and built over a period of five years, cost US$2.7 billion to construct. The hotel stands nearly fifty stories above the Las Vegas valley, with a 180-foot tall mountain in front of the main entrance.

Numerous lavish touches contributed to the high expense of the development. The sign in front of the Wynn property has an unusual mechanical design, with a large piece containing the ''Wynn'' logo, which can move vertically up or down as different announcements are presented.

"I think it's going to start a shift of power. It's been the south for a long time. Things will start moving to the north because of Wynn Las Vegas, Sheldon Adelson with the expansion of the Venetian, the New Frontier -- that whole area will become the new hot area of Las Vegas for the next decade or so," gaming expert Anthony Curtis told ''Las Vegas KLAS TV''.

As the property opened to the public, developer Steve Wynn greeted visitors at the front entrance.

"It's always fascinating to watch people enter the thing and get their first moment after we open the doors," Wynn told the ''Las Vegas Review-Journal''.

===Concern about the cost===

Analysts are not too concerned about the cost of the Wynn development. Wynn paid off the cost of ''The Mirage'' hotel-casino in 18 months, much earlier than the planned seven years for which the debt had been scheduled for repayment.

"If you remember the opening of The Mirage in 1989, Wynn needed to make a nut of $1 million a day. Everyone thought he was nuts; 'couldn't be done,' they all said," Las Vegas history department Chairman Hal Rothman told the ''Las Vegas Review-Journal''.

Wynn sold his interest in Mirage Resorts to MGM Grand (which became MGM Mirage and is now run by Kirk Kerkorian) for US$6.4 billion back in 2000, then turned around and purchased the property for the Wynn hotel-casino for US$275 million. The property was previously the home of the Desert Inn.

The hotel has 2,359 rooms, and a few hundred deluxe suites and "parlors" for high rollers. The casino has 1,960 slot machines and 137 table games on a 111,000 square foot casino floor. A Ferrari-Maserati dealership and the ''Le Reve'' stage show, featuring a million gallon water tank, round out the expensive offerings.

A round of golf will go for US$500 on the elaborate golf course located behind the main building.

All of these specifications add up to a record construction cost of over one million US dollars per room. Other expensive Las Vegas properties cost a fraction of the price, such as the Bellagio, which cost half the price at US$533,000 per room. The most expensive hotel property in the world was previously the Grand Wailea Resort in Maui, Hawaii, which cost US$775,000 per room.

"Yes, (Wynn) may be in over his head, but then he has found ways to survive before," Las Vegas professor Bill Thompson told the ''Las Vegas Review-Journal''.

===Reaction from the competition===
The ''Le Reve'' stage show features a million gallon water tank.
Several of Wynn's largest competitors spoke with admiration of the property and looked forward to its impact on Las Vegas.

"I've never understood the hand-wringing about something new, especially in Las Vegas and Atlantic City," Harrah's Chairman and CEO Gary Loveman told the ''Las Vegas Review-Journal''.

Other casino bosses from the Mandalay and the MGM Mirage had positive comments as well, hoping to pick up some new business from the development.

"It's a positive in terms of bringing more visitors," Mandalay Resort Group President and CEO Glenn Schaeffer told the ''Las Vegas Review-Journal''.

"Steve will build a great property and bring new people to town. If we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, then we'll pick up some of that business also," MGM Mirage Chairman and CEO Terry Lanni told the ''Las Vegas Review-Journal''.

===Reaction from the public===
Thousands of visitors gathered for hours in front of the property before it opened. Security guards had to monitor the number of visitors entering the building.

"I think it's spectacular," David Schwartz, coordinator of the Gaming Studies Research Center at the University of Nevada Las Vegas told ''Reuters''.

"People were pushing and shoving," Las Vegan Kathie Anderson told ''Associated Press''.

"There is nobody in the world who creates such entertaining and beautiful casinos," British billionaire Richard Branson told ''Associated Press'' from the casino floor. "I would say every other casino must be nervous. He's lifted the bar dramatically," Branson said.

"This would be hard to top," Las Vegan Marlene DeMarco told ''Reuters''.