Meeting Vegas Space Needs
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 3/26/2007
Two Las Vegas hotel-casino resorts have taken another step toward finalizing plans for convention space to be included in pending construction projects.
Boyd Gaming has revised downward its initial expectation for a 1 million square foot convention center as part of its $3.3 billion Echelon Place, the 5,000-room, multi-hotel resort to be erected on the spot where the Stardust stood until March 13.
In Boyd's first-quarter 2006 conference call with investors, Echelon President and CEO Bob Boughner said Echelon would "feature 750,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, approximately 80 individual meeting rooms and five divisible ballrooms ranging in size from 5,000 ft. to 75,000 ft. It has shaped up very nicely, and we believe it will be a strong competitor."
Asked by an investor participating in the call about the reduction, Boughner replied that initial, conceptual developments didn't sufficiently account for costs and the existence, within less than a mile of the Echelon site, of "some of the largest exposition areas in the world."
Having studied the market more closely, he said, the company had "determined that our focus was principally going to be on the higher yielding meetings business," rather than large-scale exhibitions.
The total amount of convention space includes 650,000 sq. ft. in Echelon's convention center, as well as approximately 100,000 sq. ft. in its three partner hotels.
The resort is expected to open in the third quarter of 2010.
Meanwhile, the much smaller Hard Rock Hotel & Casino will add 60,000 sq. ft. of convention space as part of its planned $750 million renovation and expansion. The space is expected to include a ballroom of approximately 24,000 sq. ft., in addition to meeting rooms.
Morgans Hotel Group and DLJ Merchant Bank announced the expansion and renovation shortly after closing their purchase of the Hard Rock for $770 million. It will double the size of the property.
The new convention space will be a substantial leap from the Hard Rock's existing 8,000 sq. ft. Vice President of Hotel Sales Michael Toney said he's excited about the exponential increase, and expects it to lead to similar growth in group business.
