As The Turnberrys Turn

Lately the fine folks at Turnberry Towers have been taking out quarter-page ads in the Review-Journal aiming at jumpstarting sales in the second high-rise condo building off Paradise Road just south of Sahara Avenue. They're doing tours from Wednesdays to Saturdays from 7:30-10:30 p.m. so people can fall in love with the night views. Yet I wondered if the ad in particular above could have some serious truth-in-advertising problems with it.

Go on, take a good look. You see what's missing? When I showed this to Miles, his first response was, "Encore." And I hadn't noticed that, but he's right. Which puts this photo of the fabulous views available at TT at about four years old.

But much more importantly, the never-to-be-finished behemoth known as the stalled Fontainebleau isn't there yet. That's important because with the F'bleau in the, uh, picture, whatever little remaining ability to see the Strip. In fact, here's the actual view that TT is now selling:


It's a minor issue, really, but it caught my eye. They're advertising "million-dollar views" when the views have changed since they were going for a million dollars and the imagery doesn't account for that.

That said, I did go off to check it out last night after a lovely dinner with fill-in co-host David McKee of the Stiffs & Georges blog and his girlfriend, Jennifer, the yummy, underrated Cafe Heidelberg. And while the advertisement might be a little off, even the blocked view is pretty and the prices are, undeniably ridiculous.

Turnberry Towers was the second act of Turnberry Associates, who built the successful Turnberry Place set of towers that sparked the ill-fated Strip high-rise building boom. The first tower was finished in 2007 and nearly sold out, but the second tower was done by late 2008 and the developer went bust the next year and the whole project ended up controlled by Prudential Financial.

Now they're having a fire sale. The fellow last night showed me the units and they're impressive, especially at these ridiculous prices.

This is the 6th floor 1-bedroom, which has 814 square feet. The same unit in the first tower sold for $575,000. This one can be yours for...


...$225,000. Likewise, a 32nd floor 1,405-square-foot 2-bedroom that sold in the first tower for $740,000 is now on the market in the second tower for $300,000.

Of course, I'm so over-leveraged with my own worthless investment properties that all I could do was marvel and privately sulk. Well, that and...


have some chicken on a stick. Sigh.

Good Super Bowl signs, re: #Vegas

[UPDATE: AOLNews.Com just posted my piece on Vegas and Super Bowl betting.]

We don't get uplifting Vegas economic news much, so let's enjoy it while it lasts, shall we?

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority projects Super Bowl XLIV -- a.k.a. The Big Game/Super Party for those afraid of lawsuits -- will fill up 83 percent of the city's 148,941 rooms, up 5.9 percent from last year even though there are now about 8,000 more rooms now. Of course, without those extra rooms this weekend's occupancy would've been 88 percent, according to my calculations. But still.

Interestingly, the NFL will hate Vegas anew for projecting the non-gaming economic impact at $89.7 million because that pretty much debunks a 2007 study claiming a $463 million economic bonanza for the Miami area from hosting the 2007 game. Y'see, only about 100,000 people go to a Super Bowl city each year, about a third of the predicted number of people who will be in Las Vegas this wet weekend.

How could 100,000 people spend $463 million but 278,000 spend just $89.7 million? Some illicit accounting, that's how. The answer, per reporting by the Palm Beach Post's Jeff Ostrowski, is that the South Florida figures are literally bogus x 10, most likely jacked up by NFL forces to encourage Miami to plunge $250 million into a stadium upgrade if they want another go at the event.

This, from Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, makes the point perfectly:

University of South Florida economics professor Philip Porter said the game's impact is neglible. He said he examined data from the Florida Department of Revenue showing expenditures in Miami-Dade County were $3.318 billion in February 2006 and $3.308 billion in February 2007.

"If the Super Bowl generated $463 million each year," Porter said, "the NFL team owners would build a stadium in the desert, host their own game and keep all that money."

Of course, it wouldn't be our desert. No, no, can't have that.