Sands Stands Firm

Las Vegas—Eric Bello, vice president of sales for the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, might have jumped the gun April 27 when he told a room full of tradeshow producers and suppliers that Las Vegas Sands was going ahead with its plans to build a new expo hall.

Despite controversy surrounding the project, the company is backing Bello up.

And, it says, it already has its first client for the new facility: Reed Exhibitions' SHOT Show, slated for January 2009.

At the annual Las Vegas gathering of the Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management's Southwest chapter, guest speaker Bello focused on his company's development plans for the new Palazzo tower and projects overseas in Macau and Singapore.

He briefly touched on the Sands' plans — announced last year by Chairman Sheldon Adelson — to construct a new exhibition facility adjacent to the existing Sands Expo & Convention Center, saying the building would encompass 1 million square feet and be open by summer 2008.

This news generated the most interest among audience members.

Responding to their questions, Bello said the new facility would go up on a lot co-owned by the Sands and Wynn Resorts, whose Wynn Las Vegas hotel-casino, with 200,000 sq. ft. of meeting and exhibit space, rose across the street from the Venetian last year.

Wynn owns a U-shaped parcel at Sands Avenue and Koval Lane; Sands owns the land in the middle of the U. Bello said the two companies had been negotiating a land-swap agreement, but "the bottom line is, it didn't work out."

As a result, he said, Sands' current plans for the new facility include a 40-foot elevated pedestrian walkway to connect the existing and new expo halls, bypassing the Las Vegas Monorail (which runs along Koval) and Wynn's property.

Sands spokesman Ron Reese confirmed most of Bello's statements, making only slight corrections: The facility will encompass 1.1 million sq. ft., and it might open in the spring. During the company's first quarter 2006 earnings conference, President and COO William Weidner told press and analysts that the new expo hall was expected to generate increased room demand.

The Sands' application for a permit to build the facility, increase its height and allow on-premise consumption of alcohol was approved with conditions at a Clark County zoning commission meeting May 3. At press time, the conditions were not available to the public, and Reese would not comment on details of the application.

That wasn't the last hurdle the company will have to overcome. Wynn Sunrise in February filed a lawsuit in the Clark County District Court seeking to block Sands' claim to an easement that would allow it to build a drive over Wynn property.

Wynn attorney Todd Bice told Tradeshow Week, "The issue with the easement is the right to use property that doesn't belong to (the Sands). We dispute such right, and I understand that they've changed their plans to eliminate the use of Wynn property."

Bice added that Wynn had concerns about traffic flow around the Sands' proposed new convention center and wanted to make sure potential problems were resolved before construction began.

Reese couldn't provide details of current plans for the new expo hall, and declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.

A judge is scheduled to hear the Sands' motion to dismiss the case, which Wynn opposed, on May 16.

Meanwhile, Wynn has proceeded with its own construction project, an employee parking garage, on the shared lot.

Some in the industry are wondering who will oversee the new facility, with rumors of Sands Expo President and General Manager Richard Heller being on leave of absence. Reese said Heller would be back in the office June 1.

"Ritchie's been going at this 25 years, and you know how hard he works," Reese added. "He just needed some time off."

At press time, Reed Exhibitions could not confirm that it had booked the 2009 SHOT Show at the Sands' new building.