Deal To Combine MGM, Mandalay Companies Closes
Monorail Glitches Strand Passengers
POSTED: 9:02 am CDT May 10, 2005
After a trouble-plagued opening that saw parts falling from trains and a four-month shutdown, the Las Vegas monorail has been operating smoothly since the beginning of the year with no problems, generating terrific ridership and revenue numbers.(You kind of see it coming, don't you?)At around 4 p.m. on May 1, the automated trains lost communication with the core computers at the command center that controls them. That basically means the trains weren't talking to home base and the system shut down. Per design specs, when a system failure occurs, the five trains went to the nearest stations to let passengers off. So everything worked great ... except that there are six trains.The last one just stopped on the tracks near Imperial Palace where it sat, with people aboard, for nearly 30 minutes before engineers could manually override the system and bring it into the station. About three hours later the computer connections were restored and the system was brought back online and everything went swimmingly.(You see it coming again, don't you?)At around the same time the next day, the trains and the control computers stopped talking to each other and the system shut down again. All of the trains returned to the nearest station to disembark passengers ... except for one. The exact same train that got stuck the day before. A couple hours later everything was back up and running again.As of press time, monorail officials haven't figured out what caused the glitch, which has not repeated itself. Yet.To be fair, the highly complex, $650 million system is still young and, to paraphrase one of my favorite sayings, "things happen." Overall, the Las Vegas Monorail is a terrific addition to the city so the sarcastic, mocking tone of this story is completely unwarranted.But, golly, it's fun.
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the land auction that created Las Vegas. The festivities surrounding the occasion are in full swing.On May 14, the city will attempt yet another record when it makes the world's largest birthday Cake at Cashman Center near downtown. The cake is expected to weigh 130,720 pounds!On May 15, the official anniversary, people will get to eat the cake and the Flying Elvi will skydive into Cashman Field before a concert by Kool and the Gang ("Celebrate good times, come on!") and a fireworks show.But since Vegas is a city that knows how to party, the fact that the May 15th date passes doesn't mean the festivities stop. Over the coming months there will be several big events, including the capper -- a free concert at the Convention Center from the Red Hot Chili Peppers over Independence Day weekend and another big fireworks show.To learn more about the Las Vegas Centennial events, visit the centennial Web site, Lasvegas2005.org.
$7.9 billion.That's how much MGM Mirage spent to acquire the Mandalay Resorts Group, a deal that was finalized, approved, closed, and off to the races a couple of weeks ago after months of legal and regulatory hurdles had been cleared.The company, which will still call itself MGM Mirage, now operates about 33,000 hotel rooms on the Strip at Bellagio, the Boardwalk, Circus-Circus, Excalibur, The Four Seasons, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, The Mirage, Monte Carlo, New York-New York, THEhotel and Treasure Island.It also now controls more than one dozen casino-hotels elsewhere in Nevada, Mississippi, Michigan and New Jersey. The new company is expected to generate about $7 billion in revenue annually, which it is going to need to finance the proposed $4.7 billion Project CityCenter, a mega-complex of hotels, casinos, condominiums, shopping and entertainment facilities slated to replace the Boardwalk hotel on the Strip.The merger is largest in gaming history -- at least until June, when the $9.4 billion merger of Harrah's and Caesars Entertainment is complete.
Frank Sinatra got a road, why not Dean Martin?That may have been the thinking behind the renaming of a portion of Industrial Road for Rat Pack crooner/actor Martin. Anyone who has driven in Las Vegas is probably familiar with Industrial Road -- if not, you should be. It's the road that starts up near downtown and parallels the Strip behind hotels such as Circus Circus, the Frontier, Treasure Island, and the Mirage.That part is going to stay Industrial Road, but from where it curves, goes under the freeway, and then goes south on the other side of the freeway will be renamed Dean Martin Drive. The name change was lobbied for by executives with Panorama Towers, a new high-rise condo complex going up on Industrial. They wanted a nicer sounding name and figured since Frank Sinatra Drive was directly opposite on the east side of the freeway, Dean Martin would be good for the west side. The company that's building Panorama will pay for new road signs and compensate businesses along the street for things like new letterhead.
Plans were unveiled last week for the $1 billion expansion of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, just east of the Las Vegas Strip.The 24-acre plot just behind the hotel along Harmon Road will be developed into a mixed-use residential, retail, recreation and hotel facility slated for completion by late 2007. More than 1,200 condos will be built -- some in high-rise towers, some in lower-rise buildings that will double as hotel rooms, and a few gigantic bungalows around a new pool and recreation area. Prices will start at $400,000 for a 550-square-foot studio in the low-rise tower and start at $2.5 million for an 1,800-square-foot bungalow. The 3,600-square-foot bungalow will definitely be out of my price range.In addition to the residences, the hotel will expand the concert venue, add new restaurants and shops, and put in a new spa and health-club facility. The one thing that won't be expanding is the casino, which, as anyone who has been there on a Friday or Saturday night will probably tell you, is a complete and utter shock.
Over the coming few days we're going to be adding new photos of the interior of Wynn Las Vegas to that hotel's page on Vegas4Visitors.com. Be sure to check it out and see them for yourself.
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the land auction that created Las Vegas. The festivities surrounding the occasion are in full swing.On May 14, the city will attempt yet another record when it makes the world's largest birthday Cake at Cashman Center near downtown. The cake is expected to weigh 130,720 pounds!On May 15, the official anniversary, people will get to eat the cake and the Flying Elvi will skydive into Cashman Field before a concert by Kool and the Gang ("Celebrate good times, come on!") and a fireworks show.But since Vegas is a city that knows how to party, the fact that the May 15th date passes doesn't mean the festivities stop. Over the coming months there will be several big events, including the capper -- a free concert at the Convention Center from the Red Hot Chili Peppers over Independence Day weekend and another big fireworks show.To learn more about the Las Vegas Centennial events, visit the centennial Web site, Lasvegas2005.org.
$7.9 billion.That's how much MGM Mirage spent to acquire the Mandalay Resorts Group, a deal that was finalized, approved, closed, and off to the races a couple of weeks ago after months of legal and regulatory hurdles had been cleared.The company, which will still call itself MGM Mirage, now operates about 33,000 hotel rooms on the Strip at Bellagio, the Boardwalk, Circus-Circus, Excalibur, The Four Seasons, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, The Mirage, Monte Carlo, New York-New York, THEhotel and Treasure Island.It also now controls more than one dozen casino-hotels elsewhere in Nevada, Mississippi, Michigan and New Jersey. The new company is expected to generate about $7 billion in revenue annually, which it is going to need to finance the proposed $4.7 billion Project CityCenter, a mega-complex of hotels, casinos, condominiums, shopping and entertainment facilities slated to replace the Boardwalk hotel on the Strip.The merger is largest in gaming history -- at least until June, when the $9.4 billion merger of Harrah's and Caesars Entertainment is complete.
Frank Sinatra got a road, why not Dean Martin?That may have been the thinking behind the renaming of a portion of Industrial Road for Rat Pack crooner/actor Martin. Anyone who has driven in Las Vegas is probably familiar with Industrial Road -- if not, you should be. It's the road that starts up near downtown and parallels the Strip behind hotels such as Circus Circus, the Frontier, Treasure Island, and the Mirage.That part is going to stay Industrial Road, but from where it curves, goes under the freeway, and then goes south on the other side of the freeway will be renamed Dean Martin Drive. The name change was lobbied for by executives with Panorama Towers, a new high-rise condo complex going up on Industrial. They wanted a nicer sounding name and figured since Frank Sinatra Drive was directly opposite on the east side of the freeway, Dean Martin would be good for the west side. The company that's building Panorama will pay for new road signs and compensate businesses along the street for things like new letterhead.
Plans were unveiled last week for the $1 billion expansion of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, just east of the Las Vegas Strip.The 24-acre plot just behind the hotel along Harmon Road will be developed into a mixed-use residential, retail, recreation and hotel facility slated for completion by late 2007. More than 1,200 condos will be built -- some in high-rise towers, some in lower-rise buildings that will double as hotel rooms, and a few gigantic bungalows around a new pool and recreation area. Prices will start at $400,000 for a 550-square-foot studio in the low-rise tower and start at $2.5 million for an 1,800-square-foot bungalow. The 3,600-square-foot bungalow will definitely be out of my price range.In addition to the residences, the hotel will expand the concert venue, add new restaurants and shops, and put in a new spa and health-club facility. The one thing that won't be expanding is the casino, which, as anyone who has been there on a Friday or Saturday night will probably tell you, is a complete and utter shock.
Over the coming few days we're going to be adding new photos of the interior of Wynn Las Vegas to that hotel's page on Vegas4Visitors.com. Be sure to check it out and see them for yourself.
The Full Story
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In Next Week's Column
Next week: The latest from Las Vegas.Plus, don't forget to send your questions about Las Vegas. I've got room for more, so send them in today!Click here to go to the main page of Vegas4Visitors.com and see all of the fantastic resources Vegas4Visitors has to offer you when planning your next trip to Las Vegas.Rick Garman is the head writer for Vegas4Visitors
