Yet another fire at the Moulin Rouge

Wow. I haven't even taken off yet -- I'm at McCarran heading to Florida to see my folks for Mother's Day weekend -- and already disaster has struck in Vegas in my absence, as is tradition. (I was also away when Monte Carlo burned, when a bomb exploded at Luxor, when a gunman opened fire at New York-New York, when CityCenter nearly went bankrupt and God knows what else.)

Today, the Moulin Rouge, the legendary and legendarily troubled landmark that was the first integrated casino in Las Vegas, is up in smoke -- again. Read all about it at LasVegasSun.Com. I'm posting that link because I suspect the Sun will continuously update their coverage at the same URL and I have no confidence the Review-Journal's Web folks would ever do anything that intuitive. Just in case they do and the Sun doesn't, go here, too.

Just a few months ago, I was being regaled by the Moulin Rouge owners about their lofty plans for a multibillion-dollar construction project. It seemed unrealistic so I merely discussed it on the March 10 episode of "The Strip" but didn't move on a piece for any of my clients. I figured if they had the money for it, I'd write about it when they actually started building. Good thing, though, they moved the iconic sign to the Neon Boneyard just the other day. Suspiciously just before that fire, huh?

Gotta fly now. Keep the city safe for me so I can enjoy my visit, will y'all?

Las Vegas - Is Boom Overextended?

Yes, that's the famous headline from this June 1955 Life Magazine issue. And the focus and topic, in these tough economic times, of my Las Vegas Weekly column. I actually wanted to provide a scan of the entire Life spread but the Weekly folks didn't do it and my printer/scanner broke for good the other day. So you'll all have to wait!

Boom Cycle
Can Las Vegas ever be overbuilt?
By STEVE FRIESS

Every now and again, if you’re around Vegas long enough, you hear about the June 20, 1955 issue of Life Magazine with a Moulin Rouge showgirl on its cover. The issue is, to many, the “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment for Vegas journalism for the question its headline asked:

“Las Vegas—Is Boom Overextended?”

It’s a punchline to many on the Strip. Six months ago, Sheldon Adelson himself referenced it in an interview in advance of the Palazzo opening in response to my question about whether the city could be overbuilt. The implication was that almost since the dawn of the destination, naysayers have wondered whether the city could continue to sustain its own urge to constantly grow.

The reason I bring this up is because, by some quirk of fate, I found a copy of that very issue for sale for a mere $25 at the Casino Chip and Gaming Tokens Collectors Club convention at the Riviera last week. I’d bought a copy before, but it was sealed in plastic and never read; the fact that I now had a shot at another copy, unwrapped, on the exact 53rd anniversary of its publication was a minor thrill I couldn’t refuse.

It also took on more resonance this year because Vegas is in one of its worst slumps ever. Occupancy and room rates are down, gambling revenues are on track to fall for only the second time since 1970, the last time being in 2002 following 9/11.

At the very same time, the frantic building continues unabated. The various CityCenter structures, the Fontainebleau, Wynn’s Encore, Echelon and a new Caesars tower all are poised to add more than 19,000 high-end rooms to the already staggering inventory in the next couple of years. Now Adelson is looking at moving the Sands Expo Center elsewhere to make room for 7,000 more rooms, Wynn wants another 5,000 in place of his golf course, Station Casinos wants 10,000 more just west of the Strip in its Viva project and someone—maybe the Plaza folks, maybe not—is going to do something big on the former Frontier property.

Which brings us back to where Las Vegas was in 1955 when that seemingly foolish headline and article were written.

Read the rest HERE