Parking Fees, Caesars Entertainment,

Sh*t You May Have Missed (or will…) Like Free Parking at Caesars Forum Shops


It’s Sh*t You May Have Missed for the week ending 7/28/2017

Hey, all! BigAZMarty here with news about our favorite place, Las Vegas!

1. Anyone that has not been living under a rock knows that The Juice will be released from a Nevada prison on parole in October, but according to TMZ he might still have a Nevada job and board available to him, from of all people, Dennis Hof. Read TMZ here. A “greeter” indeed. The gem here is that some of the “workers” might close up for good if he’s hired…as in legs closed. That and the shade was thrown on the Kardashians due to the previous Lamar Odom wild party weekend is just well humorously interesting.

2.TMZ also has the Pawn Star’s Chumlee selling his party crib in Las Vegas for a cool almost $1.85M, which will net a nice profit since he bought it for $1.1M. Read TMZ here. Stripper poles, guns, and weed. Now, what could go wrong? I want to see a Flipping Vegas show on this one!

3. According to this article quoting lobbyists, Alex Merulo will have some issues with the SLS in Las Vegas, well maybe a wakeup call I’d say. Read LVSun here. Personally, I kinda liked the SLS, except for the weird vibe off the FoxTails Pool/DayClub and the maze you had to transit off the Monorail Station. It was a very nice visit, and Google Maps has a view that shows the W has finished their pool as well, so the property has three distinct pools in different locations. FoxTail is the largest pool complex, the W’s pool up about 6-7 floors and then the regular pool (Retro Pool Lounge). I also wish their standard room sizes warranted the room rates….they still have some of the smallest footprint regular rooms available. World Tower King at 360 sq ft and Story Tower King at 325 sq ft are O.K. but not near what newer hotel/resorts are offering (usually over 400 sq ft). The only thing newish smaller rooms that are The Linq rooms at 300 – 325 sq ft.

4. WYNN Resorts via Steve Wynn is having a fun week announcing an earnings beat ($1.18 per share vs. estimates of $1.14 per share) via BusinessWire here. The odd thing here is the big Macau walk-in drop-off which has caused a stock slump to hit; Wynn Palace has construction on all four sides, so the walk-in is hard to do. However, the Steve has announced his Paradise Park will be starting soon, and the area between the existing resort and Paradise Road side of the property will have a lot of outside developers looking to lease there now per LVRJ here.

5. Forum Shops at Caesars Palace will now start to charge for Valet Parking, read LVRJ here. For those that still like free stuff, stay at The Palms since they have a shuttle to the Forum Shops. It ends a little early (8 PM is the end time) so be prepared to Uber/Lyft back if you want to make a late night of it.

6. Affinity Gaming has announced a new CIO, VP of IT. Congrats to Paige Lion for gaining that position, read LVRJ here.

7. Ceasars’ merger between CZR and CACQ approved by stockholders, read LVRJ here. It’s a bit of catch-22 so approvals for regulatory has now been pushed to October which should mark the beginning of the new Caesars Entertainment where it’s all combined back in, except for the CEOC real estate (left-hand column) listed here. That will become part of the REIT established to appease creditors from the CEOC Bankruptcy and will NOT be part of Caesars Merger. I believe the only property in Las Vegas affected by the REIT is Caesars Palace itself, minus the Octavius Tower.

8. Palace Station is announcing plans for convention space, casino floor space, as well as the 335ft Tower (27 stories and 606 rooms) in plans to the City of Las Vegas. The room count would not increase that much since the old Garden rooms are now demolished (including the infamous OJ robbery room), and those accounted for 447 rooms. Also, they will have possibly one of the largest casino floors at 126,757 sq ft. Read LVSun here. I still haven’t seen the pool deck renderings yet but will be willing to bet they will be the I-15 side with nice views of the strip.

9. Downtown Fremont Street Experience is getting a new attraction, a Fear the Walking Dead amusement ride, read LVWeekly here. I’m confused because a Junior College setting? Isn’t that House of the Dead II territory? BTW that photo is soooo Photoshop…there is no way the canopy can get that 3D to make the supports disappear like that.

10. As we’ve covered… Icahn is covering up the exposed metal with a wrap at the Fontainebleau. This news report exposes how much it costs Icahn: $2M (it was originally suggested to be $500K), so he’s probably just going to up the asking price to $652M for the property now, see 3news here.

11. Got nothing to do on July 31? Head over to The Linq and see if you can get into the Vortex viewing deck as The Killers are doing a show on the strip at Caesars Palace across the street from there at 8 PM. Read KTNV here. Six songs aren’t that long but it is The Killers, so why not? Vortex deck is getting a lot of use lately as EVINE shopping channel has filmed their Gems of Vegas shows there for the last two years. UPDATE: My wife received a priority total rewards email that for the area where the band will be performing will require people to get wristbands the day before. However, the Vortex viewing across the street at The LINQ is still free.

12. Las Vegas Sands reported 2nd Quarter earnings via PRNewswire here. What’s really odd is where are the good numbers at for Las Vegas? Slots down Y-O-Y by 8.5%, Table Games down Y-O-Y by 6.1%, Occupancy is also down Y-O-Y by 2.3%, but ADR is up 1.7%. However look at the table where these numbers come from…Convention revenue is up as is casino revenue. Is it possible that Venetian and Palazzo are tightening way up or was there some high rollers that lost big? Not listed here so no idea. It looks like their Las Vegas properties only have $27M for capital improvements in the quarter as well so not a lot of funds when compared to the size of the real estate. And odd no further notes as to the new arena building out past the convention center.

13. Tired of diminishing Video Poker, Slot payout and the limiting of Craps, BlackJack, and Roulette so some kids can spend thousands on cabana beds and bottle service at the day-club pool or nightclub? Well then head downtown according to MarC of Edge Vegas via frontdesktip.com here. I just might have to try out Downtown Grand once they open the new eight story tower.

14. EATER Vegas has the Robert Irvine’s Public House all day menu here as it should be opening at the Tropicana this week.

15. EATER Vegas also broke some new plans for Park MGM / Nomad (currently Monte Carlo), a pedestrian bridge (I’d do two…one to NYNY and one over the Las Vegas Blvd to Showcase Mall/MGM side). There is a lot of mystery as to what’s still going to stay and what will be going out front as that plaza will be redone. I’m still trying to figure out the pool deck and noticed on google maps a very Mandarin Oriental type pool going in an odd location that will probably be in full shadow except for the 11 AM to 1 PM timeframe.

16. Oops, City of Las Vegas is trying to get Neonopolis owner to pony up “shared services fees” of over $270K read LVRJ here. I’m guessing a new lease agreement with each tenant will be coming soon.

17. VitalVegas twitter feed links to this story which should be read in the dark under a blanket with a flashlight or around a campfire. El Cortez has some “interesting” basement residences read here. Bad is in the comments from “Barry”…expand and read and then fumigate yourself or watch the 1970’s film Damnation Alley and pay attention when they visit Salt Lake City.

18. MGM reported earnings of .31 per share which beat the analyst’s estimate of .28 per share but missed on revenue. Read the MGM Earnings report on PRNewswire here. It looks like there is a slump in LV for several properties except for CityCenter, Mandalay Bay, New York New York, Excalibur, and Circus Circus (notice except for the first two it’s the affordable ones that are moving up). Weird because in April MGM Grand was well just packed with people when we went. I can see why Monte Carlo is down (no pools, major construction going on).

19. PENN Gaming missed earnings estimates (they are saying LV Tropicana was due to out of service escalators and construction for the Robert Irvine Public House). Since the bridge to MGM has been fixed the foot traffic is back up again. The restaurant opens today there. Read their 2nd quarter statement here. LVRJ also reports they will be holding any new investments at The Tropicana until the traffic warrants new investment here. M Resort must be doing fine as no mention of it.

20. Boyd, Caesars, and Golden will report 2nd Quarter late this week or next week.

21. LVWeekly c/o LV Sun has the cheap fun at strip resorts here. Quick tip for Planet Hollywood. V Theater and Saxe Theater are in the Miracle Mile Shops and are NOT part of Total Rewards, however, if you have an AAA card, you can show it at the Miracle Mile booths and get a discount book which includes discounts for the theater shows in those two theaters. Interesting that PENN is now charging for pool goers that aren’t staying there $5 to get into the Trop pool…still that is pretty close to a city pool entrance fee where I’m at.

22. LVWeekly has this weekend’s big items for Oontz, Oontz and more Oontz…oh and a little Snoop and Playboy in there as well. Read here.

23. LVRJ has a new game, identify the people in old Las Vegas photos, see here. The picture with Peter Graves, the girl on the right is seeming to lick his neck, and the reactions of the two outside girls seem rather grossed out by it…just saying.

24. The D’s American Coney just served up its 1 Millionth Coney Dog, winner Peter Monroy gets a Coney a day for a year. Read LVRJ here. Wonder when the Pink’s at PH will hit that?

25. Finally, LV’s McCarran airport reports the busiest June on record via LVRJ here. They are on pace to beat the 2007 airport yearly record, but a drop off in International has been negated by US based travel upswing.

So that’s it for the news for Las Vegas and now to our Editor – In – Chief and resident no sleep guy (hope the work move didn’t keep you up too much!!!) Michael Movestro for our stuff and more.

Thanks, BigAZMarty! Everything went off without a hitch, and now it’s a short 25-minute commute as opposed to the hour that it was! Win-Win. The only downside is less podcast listening time :/ I might try to listen at work but sometimes Vegas podcasts can be very distracting. I’ll figure out something.

Hi, peeps! These are the stories we brought you this week:

26. Greg C perches atop the former Mint Tower for deconstruction views of LV Club’s surroundings.

27. Blonde4ever Does the Dome at Container Park.

28. Michael James battles a straight razor at The Barber Shop at El Cortez.

29. Sailordude checks in at Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Desert Club Resort.

That’s it for this week, we’ll see you next week!

[Cover photo: FacesandAcesLV Podcast]

4 thoughts on “Sh*t You May Have Missed (or will…) Like Free Parking at Caesars Forum Shops

  1. Any word/rumors on when the Wynn golf course will be closing? It’s been a Vegas bucket list item for me and I want to play it before he destroys it for Paradise Park. Thanks!

    1. I would play as soon as possible, the planning is still happening but once that is completed Wynn doesn’t sit around much and wait.

  2. The Eater’s rendering of the MGM Parks entrance is on the Corner where “Daiblo’s” sits. Is “Diablo’s” going away? Or are they going to squeeze it between Diablo’s and the Theater, which doesn’t seem like a big enough spot.

    1. You know there is a lot of conjecture about that portion, I would expect that Diablo’s will be closing down to accommodate the new look and feel under the new Madison Ave. (NoMad) design scheme however. The odd thing is that side entrance for some reason I’m thinking is hitting the casino floor back where those isolated slots are to the left when you come in from the strip currently. I’d love to see the rendering of the strip front and the Mandarin Oriental side as well to see what they really have planned. Oh and I am hoping that’s NOT the final hotel tower design, no changes to the prison window look and correct me if I’m wrong it looks like the new monster from Stranger Things Season Two preview just came and sat down on the hotel tower. Google Maps has recently updated it’s Las Vegas satellite photos so the pool deck is kinda Mandarin Oriental plus a little of The Linq dayclub pool where I thought they were going to move all that to an upper floor for more sunny area and use the old space to build out almost to the parking garage for more restaurants and conference rooms. I really wonder if they started to pull everything apart and ended up in a a remodel nightmare and have lessened the more expensive changes because of it. They need to hurry it up because it was a noticeable drag on the earnings due to the rooms out of commission and the people not staying during construction.

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