LAS VEGAS — Visitors by the thousands streamed into the newest casino resort on the Las Vegas strip last week, an influx that casino officials hope will help raise Sin City out of its two-year economic funk.
Fireworks and fanfare inaugurated the official launch in the early hours Thursday of the Aria Resort & Casino, the 4,000-hotel-room, 61-story centerpiece of the $8.5 billion CityCenter complex.Crowds began swarming through the doors about midnight, welcomed with cheers and dozens of photographers snapping pictures. Models and casino executives greeted guests, and hundreds got a preview of an Elvis-themed Cirque du Soleil show to debut in February.
“It’s beautiful,” said 73-year-old retiree Bernard Bouley of Saint Jerome, Canada.
Bouley waited for the opening with a friend in a small park outside the Crystals mall, peering insidethe doors at Aria’s lobby and glancing at the colorful fountains outside the resort’s main valet.
Jim Murren, chief executive officer of MGM Mirage, said that while many experts thought CityCenter would never open, its employees drove the company to make sure it carried through on its grand design. Las Vegasbased MGM Mirage is one of the principal owners of the complex.
“It was because of [theemployees] that we got here, and the promise of 12,000 people that wanted to work hard to provide for their families,” Murren said. “It was that promise - that we didn’t want to let them down - that got us here.”
“This is really 21st century Las Vegas,” said architect Cesar Pelli, whose team designed Aria. “This is really setting up very high standards that will be very hard to match - but I hope they will try.”
Murren said things are looking up in Vegas. “Our foe - the economy, the recession, the financial crisis - our opponent is now the one that’s close to its knees, and we’re just gaining momentum and gaining strength.”
As CityCenter begins operating, it’s now up to its 12,000employees to deliver an entertaining, exciting environment that makes guests want to keep returning, he said.
Aria’s rooms, along with those at CityCenter’s Mandarin Oriental and Vdara hotels, increase room capacity on theLas Vegas Strip by 8.5 percent, UBS Investment Research analyst Robin Farley said.
Murren said investors have wondered whether CityCenter would finish, and now they want to know whether it can be successful in this economy without cannibalizing its other resorts.
Like many other businesses, the Las Vegas gambling industry has been hit by the economic downturn. Casino officials are hoping that the Aria with its size and glamour can help get customers back in the game.
MGM Mirage owns the most casinos on the Strip, the street lined with large casinos, but Murren believes that CityCenter will help, not hurt, the company’s other resorts.
The room increase has competitors worried because visitation to Las Vegas has decreased in the past two years as consumers spent less time and money traveling and gambling.
Earlier in the week, a representative of the venerable Sahara hotel-casino less than three miles from CityCenter said it would shutter two of its towers until demand improves. Also, Binion’s Gambling Hall & Hotel in downtown Las Vegas closed its 365 guest rooms and cut 100 jobs to cut costs.
Competitors worry that CityCenter amounts to immediate pressure to lower room rates to keep hotels filled. But Murren and other MGM Mirage officials predict that CityCenter will help Las Vegas as a whole, spurring visitation and serving as a catalyst for long-term prosperity.
Business, Pages 72 on 12/20/2009