Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Surfing in the desert latest wrinkle in Vegas bid for new visitors

LAS VEGAS - Surfing in the desert. Rock 'n roll. Bobby Dylan. The Blues Brothers.

They're the latest attractions headed for the Las Vegas Strip as the city's newest megaresort - Mandalay Bay - undergoes finishing touches in preparation for a March 2 opening.

Hundreds of workers swarmed through the 43-story, $1 billion project Friday, laying carpet, planting tropical landscaping and fiddling with ornate statuary.

"Being 31 days out, we're in pretty good shape," Glenn Schaeffer, president of parent Circus Circus Enterprises Inc., said as he stepped over electrical cords and wound his way through a maze of construction equipment. "When the carpets are down and the slot lights are blinking, you're close.

"We're in the business of designing Christmas packages," Schaeffer said, referring to the city's growing number of $1 billion hotel-casinos. "The packages are nice and shiny on the outside. The question is how good is the surprise on the inside."

As if to answer the question, Schaeffer pointed out the intricate woodworking in the hotel's 130,000-square-foot casino, a bar where guests will be surrounded by an aquarium featuring black sharks, the Rum Jungle bar where patrons walk through a wall of fire to enter, and elegant restaurants overlooking an 11-acre lake.

Championship surfing will take place on the lake, Schaeffer said, thanks to a machine that produces 6-foot waves.

Music, Schaeffer said, will be a key element of the 60-acre resort on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip.

On the back side of the hotel, workers were placing seats in the 12,000-seat Mandalay Bay Events Center. A venue for major sports events and superstar concerts, the center will be christened April 10 with a concert by opera star Luciano Pavarotti.

"This will be the most acoustically sophisticated venue for music on the Las Vegas Strip," Schaeffer said, speaking above the din of construction equipment in the cavernous arena.

Nearby, work continued on the 1,700-seat Mandalay Bay Theatre, which will feature the six-time Tony Award winning musical "Chicago."

And in the heart of the hotel, the Los Angeles-based House of Blues is completing a 2,000-seat theater that will feature the Blues Brothers - Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi and John Goodman - at a March 2 VIP grand opening party. Rock legend Bob Dylan will follow with a midnight concert.

The hotel is sold out for its opening, Schaeffer said. Included in the 3,700 rooms and suites will be 424 managed by Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. The Four Seasons will have its own entrance, pool and bank of elevators to the 35th through 39th floors, which will be Four Seasons exclusively.

"This will be the first time you'll have a hotel within a hotel," Schaeffer said. "It will be the first five-star hotel in the history of Las Vegas."

The theme - part Polynesian, Bali and Caribbean - will be competing for the spotlight in the months ahead. The Venice-themed Venetian opens April 14, the Resort at Summerlin later in the spring, Paris-Las Vegas in September and the new Aladdin in the spring of 2000.

The new hotels come at a time when the visitor count is flat - at about 30.6 million annually. Resort officials are hopeful the new properties will boost the count, as The Mirage did in 1989, and Luxor, Treasure Island and MGM Grand did in late 1993.

"We're clearly going to go through a period of product absorption," Schaeffer said.

Circus Circus plans to build on 50 remaining acres of land it owns south of Mandalay Bay, but he admitted the plan, known as Project Z, is "several years away."

A shopping mall of 1 million square feet is under construction between Mandalay Bay and Luxor, with the opening set for the fall of 2000.

Retailing is one of the fastest growing segments of the Las Vegas economy, Schaeffer said.

"You use retailing as a way to draw people into your property," he said.

Rooms in the Four Seasons will average about $200 a night, Schaeffer said, while Mandalay Bay will be closer to $110. Luxor, the pyramid-shaped neighbor, averages $85 to $90 a night. The average room price on the Strip is about $80, Schaeffer said.

"We still have a monopoly in this city for entertainment at the best price," he said.

The resort will feature 15 restaurants, including Wolfgang Puck, the China Grill (where robots serve dim sum) and Aureole's, which features a wine tower four stories tall. A wine steward is strapped into a harness and raised or lowered to select from some 5,000 bottles of wine.

One major problem - a settling of the towering structure - has been resolved, Schaeffer said.

Last year the hotel settled unevenly as its weight squeezed moisture out of an underlying aquifer. Settling is normal for buildings erected here, but the core of the building sank slightly more than 17 inches while one wing settled 8 to 9 inches and the other about 2.

A total of 530 steel pilings were used, some sunk as deep as 240 feet, to resolve the problem, Schaeffer said. The cost was estimated at $8 million to $10 million.

"We have an immovable object here," Schaeffer said.

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