Building a Las Vegas Marketplace September 02, 2008
By Leo Jakobson
As I stood on the balcony of Moon, the very hip nightclub atop The Palms in Las Vegas last week, and looked out over The Strip, one of the first things that struck me was the sheer number of cranes dotting the skyline. Whatever else is going on, the gaming industry is clearly still in the midst of a very significant building boom.
That was on display throughout Incentive's 5th annual Las Vegas Marketplace, a hosted buyer show, held July 13-15. This year's host hotel was The Palms, which until recently was a part of that boom—its Palms Place tower only opened in February.
But as I looked out over The Strip, the second thing that struck me was how many of those cranes are right smack in the center, at MGM Mirage's new CityCenter development—I counted 15 cranes from the balcony and 16 from a different location. In all, Las Vegas has seen and will see more than $26 billion worth of hotel and casino development in the two-year time frame that began in 2008. Heck, even Maverick Aviation Group is planning on adding more sightseeing helicopters to its fleet.