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Casino
Development: Hopes High for High-Rise
As
reported by The
Las Vegas Gaming Wire
The
South Coast is going to be a lot more than just another locals
casino when it opens early next year, industry experts said
Monday.
The $600
million project, which started filling 2,400 positions with
a job fair Saturday, will be the first high-rise hotel-casino
to be built south of the airport runways on Las Vegas Boulevard.
With its
1,350-room hotel casino, Boyd Gaming Corp. is likely to redefine
the Strip, dragging it southward from Mandalay Bay, where it
ends today, and setting up a new era for Las Vegas development,
observers said.
"Location
and timing are everything in the gaming industry and the South
Coast is either genius or dumb luck on both scores," said
one casino executive with a competing company who requested
anonymity.
"Development
has headed north toward a new city center around Fashion Show,
The
Venetian and now Wynn
for several years," the source said.
"Now,
it's going to boomerang south where Boyd is going to be set
to hit a home run," the source said.
University
of Nevada history professor Hal Rothman said development will
inevitably head south as the community grows in that direction
toward the planned airport in Ivanpah.
"It
will leapfrog the runway, of course, and possibly even the 77
acres next to it, which used to be the most attractive property
in town until MGM consolidated its monopoly game-hold on the
Strip south of Flamingo," he said.
"It
makes little sense for any development to directly challenge
MGM in that area; leapfrogging the runway allows Boyd to develop
in the sphere of MGM but in essence, apart from it," Rothman
said.
University
of Nevada professor Bill Thompson, who specializes in gaming
studies, said the new resort will also benefit Las Vegas as
a destination.
"It's
important that South Coast has 1,400 rooms, not the required
200," he said. "No other locals casino has so many
rooms. Boyd will be using the South Coast to bring players into
Las Vegas, not just to pick Las Vegas pockets."
Jim Medick,
chief executive officer of the MRC Group, Nevada's largest market
research firm, said Boyd Gaming will be the first casino company
to make a mark south of Mandalay Bay and others are certain
to follow.
"With
a strong customer database and a growing population, the resort
will set the trend for others to try to beat," he said.
Construction
is already finished on the 60-acre development and Boyd Gaming
started hiring at Saturday's job fair, which featured a fashion
show previewing employee uniforms, designed by Cintas.
South Coast
Vice President and General Manager Mike Gaughan Jr. said more
than 2,500 applicants showed up for the eight-hour job fair,
1,300 of whom submitted applications online at The Orleans.
Others decided to apply later from home, and a few filled out
paper applications.
Location,
he said, will be key to the operation of the South Coast once
it opens.
"We
haven't had a presence in the south, or particularly the southeast
side of the valley before. We're lucky enough (with South Coast)
to be just off I-15 which will help grab tourists. The Orleans
has always been successful filling 1,900 rooms with that,"
Gaughan said.
South Coast,
the next major casino project set to open in the Las Vegas area,
will include a 80,000-square-foot casino, seven restaurants,
a 16-screen movie theater, a 64-lane bowling alley, a fitness
center, 150,000 square feet of meeting space and what is billed
as one of North America's finest equestrian centers.
Medick said
when Boyd Gaming opens South Coast with its resort and convention
amenities, it will enjoy the benefits of targeting two worlds:
Strip tourists and the locals gaming market.
"The
locals' (market) remains one of the hottest markets for gaming
companies and as new home communities continue to pop up almost
overnight," he said. "There are two things you can
count on: a new grocery store and a new locals' casino.
"The
south side is a great area. First and foremost, the population
projections for the area are staggering and developers are throwing
the kitchen sink into the community mix, from rentals to condos
to first-time-home buyers to grand private gated communities,"
Medick said.
"The
South Coast will be right in the heart of this mix as well as
having grand visibility from I-15," he said.
"Plus,
the Boyd group is not building their grandfather's casino. The
new plans are designed to rival their No. 1 competitor, Station
Casinos, and fit right into the soul of the community complete
with everything from night clubs and movie theaters to an equestrian
center," Medick said.
"To
both the gamer and the investment community, this local resort,
as opposed to a locals casino, is as an important of a move
as when Circus Circus began the positioning move to Mandalay
Bay," he said.
Rothman
said for Boyd Gaming, the new resort represents a chance to
continue its advancement toward being a premier Strip company.
"A
1,400 room property south of the existing Strip seeds the future,
both for that part of town and for the company," he said.
"It's
hard not to see a sizable property there as a precursor of the
redevelopment of the Stardust,
an attempt to work out the kinks in the process on a smaller
property before starting what will likely be Boyd Group's biggest
endeavor," Rothman said.
Thompson
said South Coast will intensify Boyd's competition with Station
Casinos, the second leading locals gaming company, while giving
it a chance to jump ahead.
"Boyd
will continue to be in a 'keeping up with the Station's fight,'
but Station does not have a presence on the Strip, and Boyd
does -- two places -- Stardust and Barbary," he said.
"Their
next venture must be to firm up that presence with an implosion
and a multiple-billion-dollar effort at the other end of the
Strip," Thompson said.
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