Egoism
Individualism
Sovereignty
Splendor

(These ideas are explicated in this sloppy manifesto)

 
BetterVegas: Holes...



I was in Las Vegas Sunday for the first time in almost a year. In consequence, I finally got to ride the Monorail for the first time. I've said so much snotty stuff about it, it was only fair that I actually experience it in real life. The true fact is that I've been making Cathy drive me along the route for years, so that I could watch the construction. And the next true fact is, I've been right about it all along: The location is horrible, views are mostly horrible and prospects are bleak. But here's the part you could have guessed, if you were the guessing kind: I loved it! I got to see parcels of land from 50 feet up that I've only seen from the ground before. The newly redesigned golf course at Wynn Las Vegas (the old Desert Inn golf course--135 acres!) was a particular thrill. Of course, the fact that I enjoyed myself is the death knell of the thing as a transportation system--or even as a tourist trap. It takes me to see a lot of things nobody else has any interest in, and it makes everyone walk enormous distances, substantially outdoors in the desert heat, to get from point of origin to point of destination. But, face it, The Very Slow Commercial Real Estate Development Thrill Ride ("Look, Honey, more dirt!") is not a marketable concept.

We also saw Wynn Las Vegas, inside and out, which was my other must-see for this very short trip. For the first time in his life, Steve Wynn accidentally hired a good architect, so the main building is almost elegant. The tapioca stringcourses, seen above in a photo taken from my phone, are a mystery, but the site orientation and massing of the building are superb. The rest is pure Wynn, Bellagio Part II. Everything betrays everything else--the theory seems to be that mixing every known style of decorative art cannot possibly clash--and everything is way, way, way over the top. Wynn is a genius at selling to people just like him, monied people who grew up poor and who have not learned--and perhaps cannot learn--that elegance is the one perfect thing, not piles upon piles of merely expensive things. Wynn Las Vegas is piles upon piles of absolutely everything, and it was awash with people leaving piles upon piles of money behind.

(In passing, the Poker Room was excellent, open to the world but away from the casino floor. Wynn's website promises Pineapple, but they were laying a little Omaha, a little more Limit Hold 'Em and a whole lot of No-Limit Hold 'Em at various levels of blinds. I first saw brick 'n' mortar No-Limit at the Golden Nugget last year--one table, $1/$2--but it is the game of choice at Wynn. Who says people aren't influenced by TV advertising?)

The real thrill for me, this trip, was just walking The Strip. We got off the Monorail at the Sahara and slowly walked our way back to the Flamingo, where we were staying and where Cathy is staying all week for real estate classes. Las Vegas is full of holes, more and more with every passing day. One by one, the marginal properties along The Strip, the sad old casinos, the motels, the stand-alone gift shops, the Wet 'n' Wild water park--one by one those marginal producers are giving way to holes, which will in turn be filled by newer, larger, much more profitable structures. Condo and time-share towers for now, but both Wynn and the Venetian have new hotel towers planned, and MGM/Mirage/Mandalay and Wynn are in a race to see who can build the first mixed-use city-within-a-city money trap on The Strip. And then there are the holes-to-be: Sahara, Riviera, Circus-Circus, Westward Ho, New Frontier--and the Stardust, my pick for the first to go.

Worked a lot, played a lot and saw a lot of real estate. I am living proof that Las Vegas has something for everyone!
posted by Greg Swann at 8:05 AM

SplendorQuests