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CityCenter: 'sustainable' seen as key
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Nov. 17, 2010 | 7:20 a.m.
Last year, the CityCenter complex, a joint venture by MGM Resorts International and Dubai World, was supposed to reinvigorate the gaming industry along the Strip.
The $8.5 billion project opened as planned in December, but it has done little to bolster casino business locally. What CityCenter executives are arguing, instead, is that the project was designed to be the "game-changer" in resort development.
"We set out to make CityCenter different," said Paul Berry, vice president of hotel operations for Aria. "It's all about art, architecture and design. We were building something different -- changing what Las Vegas was used to."
Berry described Aria and CityCenter as the largest sustainable development ever constructed. The 18-million-square-foot complex includes the Vdara, Crystals mall, Veer Towers, Mandarin Oriental and Aria.
The project also includes the unfinished 27-story Harmon Hotel, which was intended to be a 47-story hotel-condo project. Work was stopped on the building after improperly placed reinforcement bars were discovered.
"Sustainability is becoming more important to our guests," Berry said during a panel discussion Tuesday at the Global Gaming Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center. "Convention attendees want to come to a place that's sustainable."
JF Finn III, a project executive and principal with Gensler, and John Restrepo, principal with Restrepo Consulting Group LLC, joined Berry on the panel moderated by David G. Schwartz, director for UNLV's Center for Gaming Research.
Berry said what sets the project apart is as simple as the hotel's limousines being fueled by compressed natural gas. He said the complex generated most of its electricity and used the waste-heat captured from that generation to heat the water throughout the development.
"CityCenter also represents the urbanization of Las Vegas," he said. A glass-and-steel high-rise is more at home in New York or Los Angeles than in Las Vegas.
Finn agreed, saying CityCenter represents a more vertical, urban style project than what has traditionally been built along the Strip.
"While it's interesting to look at what we've created, it doesn't count unless the public comes in and enjoys the buildings," said Berry, who added the project opened on time in the middle of a recession.
Yet there are concerns about the project's economic viability.
"MGM is a publicly traded company and needs a return on its investment," said Restrepo. "But it also needs the nation to recover. All of Las Vegas needs a national economic recovery."
He expected the economy in Southern Nevada to get better in 2011, but not to the point where consumers believe their balance sheets would allow them to return to the spending levels of a few years ago.
Berry said he was confident about the project's long-term viability. But he believed that the "health of Las Vegas was tied to the resort industry, while the resort industry was dependent on a more diversified economy."
Contact reporter Chris Sieroty at csieroty@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893.
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It sounds like "world's largest sustainble development" is a self-appointed title by Mr. Berry and withour true merrit. The article may provide only a fraction of the information on how the development is sustainable but I would challeng Berry's comments. Having just returned from Vegas, viewing City Center and reading this article I would whole-heartedly argue that there is very little in Vegas that is sustainable. I was horrified by the lack of basic "green" amenities, such as recycling, anywhere in Vegas; City Center/Aria included. Coupled with the fact that Harmon Hotel may require demolition due to the stability/safety of the structure would, without a doubt, mark the development as anything but sustainble. It is disappointing that one person's opinion can be communicated as fact. In this case that is far from the truth.
Nice 'spin' Berry...the Day of Reckoning is coming for City Center, Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada, the United States, and the World!!!!!!
Corporate Welfare is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!
Our military, law enforcement, and ELECTED OFFICIALS need to HONOR THEIR OATH TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION!!!
oathkeepers.org
Sustainable Casinos? City Center as the poster child for green building? Yeah. Sure. I can see that.
Let's make this the world example of the greenie's plans for our future....It's City Center..all about the art of design..unusable, cold, inaccessible, uneconomical, planned poorly and built terrible at the cost of 8 peoples lives--but--"sustainable".. the straw bale boom begins..
Right.
I dont understand it should making millions.Remember Harry Reid saved it from disaster. HA HA HA
This is what happens when you have giant corporations with accountants and MBA holders running businesses that require style and imagination.
"It's a game changer in resort development"
Great, that's good to know and to know that this is what you get for ten billion.
I went there once this year, looked around and see no reason to return.
It's too big, too pretentious and in my opinion isn't representative of Las Vegas.
@ SO? – I politely disagree with you, we have seen far too many inept CEO’s and government rewarded for massive failure. – Fannie and Freddie, Goldman Sach’s, auto industry etc, Reid re-elected and the list goes on and on. – The problem honest folk’s face is if we fail it costly to us financially, emotionally and for some physical effect. – Possibly we don’t know how to failure properly or really just fail with political connections.-- Sad isn’t it what we call or what is a representation of our business and government leadership. -- Actually disgusting especially since taxpayers and workers emd up footing the bills.
City Center will go down in history as the biggest DEBACLE to ever be constructed, yet Murren and his buddies continue to get large paychecks. I have never seen ineptitude and failure at this level continued to be rewarded.
Wasn't there supposed to be a casino in there somewhere?
What they need to do is build more and bigger Hotels since it is working so well now. -- It is great that CityCenter represents the urbanization of Las Vegas but doesn’t that mean crowds? Instead they have the perfect place for Alzheimer’s patients to safely walk around in cause they won’t bump into anyone and when they get lost it stays warm thanks to green tech. – Las Vegas is lost forever.