Chamber: See no downturn, hear no downturn

By Alexandra Berzon

Friday, Feb. 1, 2008 | 2 a.m.

This was the mood Thursday when members of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce gathered for their annual cheerleading rally — this year, in the face of a worsening economy:

Richard Lee, one of the valley’s prominent executives, bounded onto the stage like Rocky as music blared and spotlights swept across the audience.

He looked out over the thousand or so gathered inside the Thomas & Mack Center and pretended to whimper.

“I’ve been feeling pretty beat up lately,” said Lee, vice president of First American Title. “The headlines make me feel really saaaaad.”

And he pretended to cry.

“Come on, everyone, let’s whine, let’s moan. They’re beating us up!”

Indeed, with the local housing market continuing to drop and the national economy tanking, this year’s installment of the Chamber of Commerce’s annual economic forecasting event, Preview Las Vegas, could have been a real downer.

Jeremy Aguero of Applied Analysis reminded everyone how sour the local economy is:

• Plans for 20,000 condo units were suspended or canceled last year, 850 are on the resale market and only 20 condo sales closed last month.

• Consumer spending is falling.

• The commercial real estate market is softening.

But wait, these folks don’t want to dwell on that. This is the Chamber of Commerce. Pass out the pompoms.

“Let me tell you why it’s good to be in Las Vegas,” Lee said, turning enthusiastic.

A video followed with a rapid sequence of one-second clips, interspersed with lightning bolts, that included construction cranes and new development models and dancers and hot women holding martini glasses and sailboats and golfers and a fancy sushi restaurant.

“It’s opportunity time!” Lee said.

The morning’s hearty optimism and excitement in the face of negative economic indicators could be said to befit a city that is investing $30 billion in its skyline and recently unveiled a commercial that focuses on a man in a suit who takes odd delight in wearing crocodile shoes.

“We are the most exciting city in the world!” declared Rossi Ralenkotter, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority.

Ralenkotter echoed comedian Steven Colbert, who recently proposed on his show that the United States ban the word “recession,” thereby making it impossible for the country to fall into one.

“If we keep saying ‘recession,’ then we’ll have a recession,” Ralenkotter said.

Aguero carefully pointed out that Las Vegas has faced negativity before, citing a Los Angeles Times article from 1905 — “A boomtime expired with a sob and a groan” — and a 1983 Chicago Tribune article headlined “Vegas casinos running out of luck as high rollers flock to Atlantic City.”

That brought a chuckle from the crowd.

“Las Vegas always has these negative connotations, and yet we always boom,” said Norma Stewart, who heads up sales for Pinnacle, a condo/hotel tower in development.

“This is an optimistic town,” engineer Stu Powell said. And no more so than at the Thomas & Mack on Thursday morning.