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Las Vegas News of the Week

October 22, 2007 Vegas4Visitors Weekly by Rick Garman Harrah’s and Rio: Rooms Closed Over Remodeling Questions Tikis Invade The Strip Stations Casinos Wins Approval To Go Private Fontainebleau Annoys Neighbors Brown Bagging at the Hash House Q&A: Golden Nugget?

Tikis Invade The Strip The four-mile stretch of the Las Vegas Strip was reminiscent of Easter Island today, as one hundred tiki statues “mysteriously” appeared to mark the opening of the Trader Vic’s restaurant at the Miracle Mile Shops at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Tourists are invited to take pictures with the tikis and rub them for good luck and the Trader Vic’s folks say that casino gamblers infused with tiki-power can expect much good fortune, even going so far as to apologize in advance to casino operators who can “expect payouts of record jackpots.” Tiki sightings have been reported by the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign, by the replica Eiffel Tower and many of the tikis appear intent on watching the Bellagio fountain show. Each of the tiki statues are hand-carved and stand 6-feet tall by 3-feet wide. The whole thing is a publicity stunt to celebrate the opening of Trader Vic’s Las Vegas at the Miracle Mile Shops at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. The 15,000 sq. ft. restaurant and lounge features modern and traditional Asian/Polynesian dining with an outdoor party patio overlooking The Strip and a second-floor ultralounge. And just in case you’re a child of the ‘70s, the press release from Trader Vic’s carries this important disclaimer: “In deference to Polynesian cultures, the tikis created for this event are only representative of authentic tikis and do not accurately depict any actual cultural symbols. We saw that Brady Bunch episode and we’re not about to mess around with the mojo of the Tiki. D’uh.” return to the top	Where are the showgirls?
Stations Casinos Wins Approval To Go Private The Nevada Gaming Commission approved a plan for local gaming giant Stations Casinos to be taken private under a deal between founding family members, brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, and Colony Capital, an investment company that also owns the Las Vegas Hilton. The deal was worth a reported $5.4 billion. The Hilton will remain separate from the Stations Casinos and Colony Capital may continue to expand into the Vegas market on its own, but for now Stations will primarily be the Fertitta brothers’ show. They will take the company out of the hands of shareholders, a move that could mean some even more aggressive moves than the company has already taken in the ongoing dominance of the local Las Vegas market. The company currently owns or co-owns over a dozen hotels and casinos in the Las Vegas area including Red Rock Resort, Green Valley Ranch, Sunset Station, Boulder Station, Fiestas Rancho and Henderson, and many more. They are working on a new casino project on the far north side of town called Aliante Station and own plots of land around the Vegas valley that could be developed with more major resorts including the Wild West casino site just west of The Strip on Tropicana, the former Castaways hotel site just east of Downtown, and more. return to the top Fontainebleau Annoys Neighbors Imagine: you’re living the good life in a sweet condominium worth hundreds of thousands of dollars with a remarkable view of the Las Vegas Strip. Now imagine they come along and build a parking garage in the way. That’s the problem going on for many residents of Turnberry Place, the multi-billion dollar condo complex on Paradise Road across from the Las Vegas Hilton. Until recently many of the units in the towers had those great views but now that the $3 billion Fontainebleau hotel/casino project is under constructions some of those views are fading away. At issue is a parking garage, which residents of the complex say was initially proposed as seven stories but now has gotten a variance that will add convention space and more, sending it soaring to about 23 stories. Although the people that live there new something would be built on the vacant land eventually, their complaint is that they were misled about what it would be and, specifically, how big it would be. Lawsuits are being filed although interestingly not against the company that owns the condos or the construction project, but against the county for approving all of this in the first place. There’s little chance that the lawsuits will have much of an effect on the construction progress and Fontainebleau is still projected to open in 2009 with more than 3,800 rooms in a 63-story hotel tower plus a casino and all of the attendant mega-resort accoutrement. return to the top Brown Bagging at the Hash House This is getting exhausting. Hash House a Go Go’s mantra is “Twisted Farm Food,” and they live up to their motto with the brand new $5-Bag Lunches from the Tractor Bar at Hash House a Go Go, one of my favorite restaurants in Las Vegas. The launch of $5-Bag Lunches from the Tractor Bar will coincided with National School Lunch Week, which began October 14th. National School Lunch Week was created in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy to celebrate good and healthy nutrition. Hash House A Go Go is celebrating National School Lunch Week with their new $5-Bag Lunches that are made fresh and every lunch contains fresh fruit. $5-Bag Lunches come ready to go in brown paper bags and everything is made fresh daily. To order a $5-Bag Lunch, patrons simply call Hash House a Go Go at 702-804-4646 before 10 a.m. on the day of their order. Lunches will be ready for pick-up between 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. For the month of October and November, the lunches include sandwiches like grilled ham and cheddar, beef and mozzarella, smoked chicken and cheddar, macaroni and cheese, grilled corn, and more. Each month the lunch schedule will change and feature exciting new items made fresh each day. The $5-Bag Lunch is for take-out only and the $5 price includes tax. Hash House a Go Go is located at 6800 West Sahara Avenue , Las Vegas , NV 89146 . For reservations or inquiries, please call Hash House a Go Go at 702-804-4646 or visit www.hashhouseagogo.com. return to the top
Feature of the Week

Harrah’s and Rio: Rooms Closed Over Remodeling Questions

It started out fairly small but still surprising: two entire floors of one of the towers at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino were shut down by the county when it was alleged that the proper permits were never filed to cover remodeling work done between 2004 and 2006. Due to safety concerns the rooms were emptied so inspectors could check the work to make sure it was all up to code. The next week Harrah’s Entertainment, which owns The Rio, voluntarily shut down almost 600 rooms at Harrah’s on the Las Vegas Strip over similar concerns. One of my readers was staying at Harrah’s when the sudden evacuation. Here is his story as he relayed it to me via e-mail: On the night of Monday Oct 8th, I returned to my room at Harrah’s after visiting downtown (and watching the Bills-Cowboys game) at about 11:30 pm. There were two messages on my phone. One was from a Harrah’s host that I have never met telling me that I had to switch rooms immediately. The message asked me to call back the host’s extension, so that he could arrange limo transport to either the Imperial Palace or the Flamingo. The second message was a recording from Harrah’s president to apologize for the short notice and the situation. I immediately called my host and asked what the hell was going on. He said I had to move rooms, but he could find me another room in Harrahs (an upgrade !) . My host came up to my room to drop off the new keys and explain. My host said that in the last set of room renovations at Harrah’s, the final renovations were never approved by Clark County , and now everyone had to move out of the rooms in question, until they could be inspected and approved. My host said that out of the 2400 rooms at Harrah’s, 600 of them were being closed, and many people were being moved to other hotels. So, at about 12:05 am, I started packing to move to my new room one floor up. A week later after returning home, my reader received a letter apologizing for the inconvenience and offering him two free room nights to make up for it. To their credit, the letter contained a forthright explanation about the event: For your information, the relocation of guests came about because Harrah’s may not have obtained various permits required by the county related to remodeling of some of our guest rooms. We told Clark County we would vacate these guest rooms to provide it with a chance to inspect these rooms. As of this writing those rooms remained closed at Harrah’s as do the two floors of rooms at The Rio. In addition another entire wing of The Rio was closed temporarily while workers made some quick repairs to work that had been done during the remodeling that could’ve resulted in a dangerous situation in the event of a fire. At this point the issue seems to be confined to those two hotels but with the constant construction and non-stop remodeling projects that are happening at hotels up and down The Strip there is a concern that there could be more problems elsewhere. County officials are reportedly taking a long hard look at every hammer swing to make sure that none of the fancy redecoration has caused unsafe conditions at the hotels. return to the top
Question of the Week

From: Mark in San Bernadino, California Question: I was in Downtown Las Vegas recently and saw a lot of work happening at The Golden Nugget. Didn’t they just finish a big renovation? Are they doing more? Answer: Oh yes, Mark, they are doing a lot more. Landry’s Restaurant chain bought the hotel in 2005 and dumped $100 million into a massive renovation of the property, redoing all of the public areas of the casino and lobby, adding new restaurants and lounges, and putting in a big, fancy new pool area. The construction you saw is part of a separate $70 million expansion that will add more casino space, convention rooms, and a brand new 4,500-square-foot nightclub that will overlook the Fremont Street Experience from the second floor of the hotel. That’s all expected to open by December and includes a revision of the Fremont Street façade of the hotel. But they aren’t stopping there. Next year Landry’s is going to pump another $150 million into the hotel to build a new 500-room hotel tower with even more casino space. That will be constructed next to the existing parking garage, across the street from the current hotel. It is expected to open by 2009. When it is all complete Landry’s will have spent more money on the hotel’s makeover than they spent to buy it. This is great news for not only the hotel but for the Downtown Las Vegas area, which needs an influx of money and development like this desperately. Whether it will be enough to lift the sagging fortunes of the neighborhood is yet to be seen. return to the top

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