Castle in the Sands?
Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 3/28/2008 3:45:00 PM
Japan, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam… but what about Las Vegas? In a recent speech, Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., said he was looking at building integrated resorts throughout Asia. Meanwhile, he hasn’t said a word about his suspended expansion plans for the Sands Expo & Convention Center, right here in his hometown.
Adelson gave the keynote address at a JPMorgan Chase & Co. investment conference at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino Thursday, March 27. In it, he expounded on his belief that the success of the Sands’ Cotai Strip development in Macau, China, proves his integrated resort concept could work anywhere in the world. He also invited government leaders from countries interested in getting on board to waive gaming and property taxes and make other concessions to help make it easier for him to invest in their economies – an investment he said would pay off in jobs, as well as growth in gross domestic product and tourism.
Decidedly, Adelson’s attention has turned abroad.
The 12th-richest man in the world (according to Forbes magazine) told Tradeshow Week three years ago he would expand Sands Expo by 800,000 square feet of exhibit space. Since then, he hasn’t said a peep about it, and the project has stalled.
However, documents on file with the Clark County Office of Development and examined by TSW Las Vegas are in line with Adelson’s 2005 vision. Permit requests and design reviews that Las Vegas Sands submitted to the county starting in July 2006 describe a “125-foot high, 1,500,290 square foot exposition hall and convention facility located on this site” at Sands Avenue and Koval Lane. “Circular helix ramps at the north and south ends of the facility will provide vehicular access to the two levels of parking at the top of the structure,” according to the description.
The project began encountering obstacles immediately. A civil engineering analysis in the file noted, “The size of this project is over 1 million sq. ft. of additional space for expansion to the existing convention center. Due to the size of this project, staff has concerns with regard to the site’s ingress and egress, as well as pedestrian safety issues.”
Property owned by Wynn Las Vegas is sandwiched between the lot for the proposed expansion and the existing Sands Expo, and the Las Vegas Monorail snakes between the Wynn employee parking garage and the Sands – all opening the door for complaints by those who would rather not see the expansion built.
A year ago, Las Vegas Sands said the expansion would open six to 10 months later than the originally expected date of January 2009, due to changes in its development plans. Salespeople told customers who had booked the facility through the fall of that year to look for alternate sites.
Last December, however, the company cleared what appears to have been the last hurdle standing in the way of construction – a squabble with Wynn over the required number of parking spaces. The County Commission granted Las Vegas Sands’ request for a waiver to include the normally required number of parking spaces per square foot of space to be built.
That leaves only one question to be answered: When will the expansion start?
In the 2005 TSW Las Vegas interview, Adelson said, “We’re doing it right now.” He also said that, once the project got started, it shouldn’t take much more than a year to finish.
If the project is still expected to open by late 2009 and it will take a year to complete, then it should be getting underway … right about now.
Maybe Adelson will get to it, when he gets back from the Far East.
Sands spokesman Ron Reese did not return calls from TSW Las Vegas seeking comment.
