Aria / CityCentre Mega Casino Complex Opens in Las Vegas

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Created on Wednesday, 30 December 2009 06:54

Recession? What recession? Well there is one even in Las Vegas, but that has not stopped MGM Mirage and Dubai World from opening a new huge casino and entertainment complex in the desert town. They are betting that the US economy will come roaring back into life in 2010. We check it out...

The new CityCenter incorporating the Aria Casino is the biggest, brashest and most costly development in Las Vegas so far. There was a huge fireworks display over the Aria hotel-casino complex during the recent opening in the desert. It's a $8.5bn project built by MGM Mirage and Dubai World (yes Dubai of recent loan delay fame).

Aria Casino is the centre piece of the City Center project which sucked up £5.3bn to get it off the ground. MGM's CEO, Jim Murren, rung open the NY Stock Exchange remotely from Las Vegas to mark the occasion. Citycentre is a city within a city, almost of SimCity proportions. It was the largest privately funded construction project in the United States and consists of 4 hotels, a retail and entertainment area and will have three 37-floor glass towers of luxury pads once the project is fully completed (they obviously wanted to get some money rolling in off the tables first). Norman Foster was involved in the design.

The timing is somewhat unfortunate as Las Vegas has been in full recession for a while now. With 12% of the population on the dole and house prices plummetimng, it's a brave bet. CityCenter will add 6,000 rooms to a city that is already struggling to get enough "bums on beds".

CityCenter site sits between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo complexes and will employ 12,000 people.

Whether or not the new complex will be a success, only time will tell. We would bet that in the short term, this new opening isn't going to make things any easier for Vegas (although the developers claim that it will "suck" in more customers on account of it being so new). But over the long term, we can see Las Vegas bouncing right back with the US economy. And you'd be a brave man or woman indeed to bet against Uncle Sam over the long term.An we'll be certainly checking it out. Watch this space for the review...