No Room at the Inn?
Since moving down I’ve become pretty interested in the economic growth and forecast of the LV Valley. During CES some kats I’d met online that were pretty involved in the tech space were having problems getting rooms at an affordable rate. Reminded me of the glory days of Comdex when we’d stay in Primm (if we were lucky) or have to schelp to Laughlin. The growth rate is pretty incredible, projected at about 6% this year with an estimated 6000 people moving to town each month. It shows in the traffic, infrastructure and the service at some lower end or moderately priced stores catering to the locals. It really is a boom town.
The expansion is nuts. Most of the older casinos are being replaced with either newer resorts or condos. A few months back I found Nick Chirstensen’s goulishly funny Las Vegas Casino Death Watch. It’s a great way to keep up on whats happening with the older places. Once upon a time Vegas was a much different place. Cheap food and drinks to entice those wishing to partake in games of chance. These days it’s swanky restaurants and high priced drinks. There are still places to go to get a good deal but old Vegas has been replaced with high end Vegas and is just starting to see a sort of “Manhattanization” of high rise luxury condos. My place is slated to be leveled in a month for a casino expansion and condos. The two places I had my eye on to replace this place are in the process of being converted to condos. My pals at the big production shows have been experiencing this west of The Strip for the last year or so. I’ll likely move further off The Strip, which is kind of a drag or move into some accomodations that might not be so hospitible. Or safe. I could move down to Henderson or out toward Summerlin like the other middle class white folk but there’s something about being about to stand out on the balcony and have a view from Mandalay Bay all the way to the Stratosphere. The New Year’s fireworks shows were quite spectacular, similar to the view I had in Seattle that stretched from the stadiums to Fremont, with a direct shot at the Space Needle. I’m having a blast down here and though things didn’t quite go according to plan, it’s the best move I’ve made. Right up there with moving from Hollywood to Twin Peaksville just in time to ride the grunge rock trend to the next level of my career. If anything, I wish I would have moved down a year or two ago.
One thing that has been puzzling me was what was going to happen in the next few years as all these resorts are being replaced by newer resorts. The average occupancy rate in town is 93%. We have about 125k rooms available right now. According to Las Vegas Tripping, we’ll lose nearly 15k rooms over the next couple of years as several properties revamp. While it’s true we will be getting the benefit of a Hooter’s Hotel and Casino (no, really dude I couldn’t make this up) those rooms were already available as the San Remo but what’s going to happen to the growth rate when we lose 12% of the hotel room capacity for the next few years? About 40 million people come through town a year and in order to keep up this sort of growth rate, we need to be able to house them. In the long run it will be good as from the Wynn north on The Strip, it needs a bit of a facelift. Downtown has been faltering for years and I’ve got an idea. As the mega resorts on The Strip have been catering to the more well to do, the properties downtown can capitalize by getting that old Vegas vibe back. They kind of do that now but they need to kick it up a notch. Five buck t-bones, two buck beer, 99 cent breakfast, affordable rooms. The stuff that made Vegas famous. It’s true that a lot of the need to go to Vegas was lost as tribal gaming opened up all over the country. Those tribal casinos don’t have the Strippers, err I mean Sirens of TI, Carrot Top twice nightly or the biggest headliners and production shows (including B-way hits) in the biz. Going to the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt Pleasant, MI (like I have) though a nice place, is no substitute for the real thing. The demand is certainly there, let’s hope that it isn’t reduced by the lack of capacity over the next few years while the next phase of the expansion is happening.