Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

M Resort shaking up south valley

M ResortUlf1

Ulf Buchholz / In Business Las Vegas

M Resort in Henderson is set to open March 1.

M Resort

Table games employees receive training at the M Resort  in Henderson Thursday, February 19, 2009. The new hotel and casino property, under construction at St. Rose Parkway and Las Vegas Boulevard South, is scheduled to open March 1. Launch slideshow »

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  • Anthony Marnell III talks about how his "business plan has remained unchanged."

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  • Marnell talks about sticking to core values to make it through rough economic times.

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  • Marnell talks about getting back into the business.

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  • Marnell on collaborating with his father on the project.

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  • Marnell describes the interior of the M Resort.

Beyond the Sun

M Resort

  • Casino: More than 1,847 slot machines, 64 table games, a poker room and race and sports book.
  • Number of rooms: 390
  • Entertainment: Live music at the Villaggio Del Sole Pool and Entertainment Plaza
  • Restaurants: Baby Cakes, Marinelli's, Red Cup Cafe, Studio B, Terzetto, Veloce Cibo, Vig Deli
  • Nightlife: Five bars and lounges
  • Attractions: 14-screen movie theater
  • Pool: Main pool and VIP pool
  • Spa: Spa Mio, offering 16 treatment rooms, sauna, steam, Jacuzzi wet areas and a full service salon.
  • Shopping center: No
  • Health club: Yes
  • Convention rooms: Yes, more than 160,000 square feet
  • Child-care facilities: No
  • Players club card: Yes
  • Parking garage: Yes
  • Valet: Yes
  • Airport shuttle: Yes, included in resort fee

The competitive landscape of the casino business in the southern Las Vegas Valley is about to change with the March 1 opening of M Resort.

How much it will change will depend on how many customers loyal to the three locals casinos closest to M — Michael Gaughan’s South Point, Station Casinos’ Green Valley Ranch Resort and the privately held Silverton — become steady customers of M.

The doors are scheduled to open at 10 p.m. March 1. The resort has 351 standard rooms, 39 large suites, a 92,000-square-foot casino with 64 table games, more than 1,800 slot machines, nine restaurants and five bars.

The casino will have a state-of-the-art race and sports book, a live poker room and a high-limit salon with an outdoor terrace. The property will introduce the iMagine Rewards Club card. Customers will be able to swap loyalty card points for gasoline at an on-site convenience store. A pharmacy will serve employees and customers, who can pay with loyalty card points.

The 23,000-square-foot Spa Mio will offer a variety of treatments, and a wide variety of entertainers are expected to appear at the 1,800-seat showroom.

More than 37,000 people applied for 1,800 jobs at the property.

The opening rejuvenates a longtime rivalry with second-generation casino operators.

The M is controlled by Anthony Marnell III, whose father, Anthony Marnell II, opened the Brazilian-themed Rio in 1990.

The Rio’s rival across Valley View Boulevard, the Gold Coast, which opened in 1986, was developed by Gaughan, who in 2004 sold the property to Boyd Gaming. Gaughan stayed on the Boyd board of directors until 2006 and when he left, Boyd sold the South Coast on Las Vegas Boulevard South to him. Gaughan renamed it South Point, and it drew attention as the first property Southern Californians saw when they arrived in the Las Vegas Valley.

The Rio’s other rival in the ’90s was Palace Station, the original flagship of Station Casinos. Operated by the Fertitta family, the company opened Green Valley Ranch Resort in 2001 in a partnership with the Greenspun family, which owns In Business Las Vegas.

Since that opening, Green Valley has become one of the premiere properties in Henderson and its Southern California vibe became a favorite for locals and out-of-towners who wanted luxurious digs off the Strip.

The Gaughan and Fertitta families will be competing again with the younger Marnell, who got his start at the Rio and developed his management skills by creating a software company and by acquiring rural casinos in Pahrump and Laughlin. He acknowledges that South Point and Green Valley will be his biggest rivals, but he also expects M to reach further into the local market.

“I think that South Point and (Green Valley) are definitely two of the biggest ones,” Marnell said in a recent interview. “Maybe Silverton a little bit. Going to the west, probably some pieces toward Red Rock (Resort), down (Interstate) 215 on the local side. I think we’ll reach out past those properties, not on a frequent basis but on an infrequent basis, we’ll definitely reach out past those properties for different things that we’re going to be doing here.”

Marnell and his competitors know each other well enough that there aren’t likely to be many surprises.

“Michael Gaughan and Frank Fertitta have been here a long time, and this is not their first rodeo,” Marnell said. “They’ve seen a competitor come into the market many a time, and I don’t expect that Michael or Frank are going to roll over and let me show up with this great hotel. I think they’ll be smart competitors and they’ll be good competitors. But, no, they’re not going to lay down. They’re going to fight just like we’re going to have to fight.”

Marnell is hoping the properties will be perceived as different enough that they won’t be battling for the same customers.

“Hopefully, we’re not in a position where we’re duking it out too bad for existing customers,” Marnell said. “Hopefully, the M will help grow the market for the south Strip and our research shows that there are a lot of people down here in our immediate area, within a mile or so, who do not experience or go to either one of those competitive properties. They go to a property on the Strip. They’re a different consumer, maybe looking for a different product. I think we’ve put some of the products in here that will help start to grow the south Strip image and the revenues in those different categories.”

But a gaming analyst thinks that because the economy isn’t growing that it’s inevitable they’ll be competing for the same customers, at least in the short term.

“Without the benefit of ongoing population migration for now, getting additional supply in locals market creates a hypercompetitive dynamic,” said Bill Lerner, a Las Vegas-based gaming analyst with Deutsche Bank. “A special project like M will be a competitive threat for South Point and, to some degree, Green Valley Ranch.

“These are all fresh properties and special in their own way,” Lerner said. “I think in the middle to long term, incremental migration will support the additional gaming supply.”

Lerner thinks South Point’s advantage will be its visibility off Interstate 15. Green Valley, meanwhile, will have the advantage of being part of a multisite group — it can create more compelling products such as multiple-site jackpots and jumbo reward promotions.

Marnell’s competitors are gracious in their praise for M and although they say publicly they won’t up the ante, they’ll certainly stress customer service to keep their customers.

“Welcome to the neighborhood,” said Gaughan, whose property is 3.2 miles north of M.

“I toured the place and it’s gorgeous,” Gaughan said. “It’s very nice, very upscale. I think he’s going after a higher-end player than I am.”

Gaughan said although M is a nice place, he has his own advantage: South Point has a three-year head start. In addition, after opening a new tower last year, South Point has 2,200 rooms while M has only 400.

“I think if times were good, everything would be fine,” Gaughan said. “I think we were always looking at attracting different customers, but now everybody’s fair game. And I know that I’m doing my best right now.”

Green Valley Ranch, 6.3 miles east, is closer to what M aspires to be and its general manager, Tim Wright, views M “as competition, but friendly competition.”

“I have driven past the property and what they’re doing is just beautiful,” Wright said. “Naturally, when anybody opens up, there’s going to be some people going over to give it a look, but will we be changing our business model? No, we’re going to continue to focus on keeping the property fresh and having the right amenities to fulfill our guests’ expectations.”

Green Valley Ranch is slightly larger than M, with 495 rooms. But Wright points out it has established itself with its spa and pool and entertainment offerings at friendly prices.

“We bring national acts and reasonable pricing for them,” Wright said. “We don’t want to climb deep into people’s wallets.”

The Silverton is the same distance from M as Green Valley Ranch, north on I-15 at Blue Diamond Road, and its president, Craig Cavileer, has considerable experience weathering new resorts in his neighborhood.

“When a new property opens, here’s a natural curiosity,” Cavileer said. “We all want to see what is new, fresh and exciting. What we have found, historically, is that the market generally expands if there is not a lot of cannibalization going on.”

But he also noted that today’s market is not the same as it has been historically. He said after a property opens, it usually takes 60 to 90 days for the market to shake out. This time, with housing growth and tourism numbers down, the pattern could be different.

“We’ve always enjoyed a great location,” Cavileer said. “Blue Diamond has enjoyed prosperity because of all the growth to the west. We became extremely accessible after the changes to the highway interchange. We’ve also had 11 years of branding and database building to help us.”

Cavileer also cited his property’s Bass Pro Shops partner, a major retail attraction for locals and tourists.

“But M is quite accessible as well and it’s a great-looking property,” he said. “And the Marnell brand really means something in this market. I think it’s going to come down to delivering on what we promise.”

One nearby competitor may be more excited than the others about M’s opening because he’ll be doing to M what M is doing to its other rivals.

“I think M is going to establish the south end of the Strip and the south end of the valley as a true gaming area,” said Garry Goett, chief executive of Olympia Gaming, which plans to build the Southern Highlands casino near M.

Goett said Olympia owns and has no debt on the property on the northwest corner of St. Rose Parkway and Las Vegas Boulevard South. When financial markets collapsed, Olympia executives decided to redesign the project and wait for a more favorable economic climate before building.

“M opens up many opportunities along Las Vegas Boulevard and I-15 from the south,” Goett said. “The visibility from the freeway helps set a corridor for that whole south Strip.”

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