Sh*t You May Have Missed… Like Inferno replacing Circus 1903 at Paris

Hey all, BigAZMarty here with this week’s news about our favorite place, Las Vegas! 

1) LVMPD and the Sheriff released their FIT findings on the October 1, 2017, event, this is NOT a full findings and rumors are that arrest(s) may be forthcoming.  First off here is the official report (it’s 81 pages in PDF form).  Be aware the pictures in the back include the dead shooter.  LVRJ has a concise report here as well.

2) Deconstruction porn of the last remnants of the Las Vegas Club courtesy of Vital Vegas’s YouTube channel, see it here.  Now it’s time for the site to be scrubbed and prepped for new construction!  Derek you know we want some renderings!

3) Per Vital Vegas, Hard Rock Casino and Resort has been sold to Richard Branson’s Virgin Hotel’s group, read here, and follow the link in that to the unique things they do that is different from other hotel chains.  Also, there are additional investors involved as well at the bottom read the updates.  If they keep the Magic Mike show, they will have to come up with an “alternative” name for the tickets as I’m sure female business travelers will still undergo the scrutiny of the accounting department as well as spouses on the charge receipts.

4) I had received an email on this a little late last week from DTG, but MarC of EDGe Vegas reports on the new partnership between Downtown Grand and Las Vegas’s own Tenaya Creek Brewery, read here and if you enjoy craft beer, maybe this offer is for you.

5) MarC of EDGe Vegas has the report here on the fact again Hotel Room Rates are expected to climb again in 2018 as Room Remodels at Flamingo, Bally’s, Luxor as well as the conversion of Monte Carlo / Hotel32 to Park MGM / NoMad.  I don’t know but I have a strong feeling that Airbnb is going to be the Lyft/Uber especially to larger parties (especially convention attendees where large same company groups attend at same dates and times).

6) Not sure if this is going to really be a thing or not, but EATER Vegas has news on the yet to be built Area 15 just south of Palace Station here.  4th Quarter of 2019 and no ground broken / construction start yet…sounds like another All Net Arena and Resort. UPDATE: They broke ground the day after I put this in so more Resorts World than All Net Arena and Resort.

7) EATER Vegas has more info on the NoMad portion of Park MGM as well as the confirmation that the pool up above the indoor walkway from Aria to future Park MGM (now Monte Carlo) and about eye level to the Monte Carlo/Aria tramstop deck is, in fact, the dedicated rooftop pool for NoMad.  Read and enjoy some of the planned features for NoMad here.  Still awaiting room renders or actual photos of the NoMad rooms.  In New York, there is a clawfoot bathtub in the room (not in the bathroom).

8) Troy Liquor Bar at Golden Nugget is open as of January 12th and $12 drinks in clear Solo Cups?  Although they do have a balcony overlooking Fremont Street (which may be why plastic instead of glass) they could have done something nicer than a clear solo cup with the bar logo.  See the DTLV article about Troy Liquor Bar here, they had to have taken these shots during CES as that would explain the sausage-fest optics of guy vs. girl ratio inside the club.  Someone needs to research party models to get that ratio looking more even… nothing kills a bar/club more than a sausage-fest night after night after night.

9) Wynn reported earnings a little early on Monday, during the trading day.  Some people were concerned that it would be bad (it wasn’t… at least for Macao).  I’ll simply point you to the actual statement here.  Almost 30% up YOY for the same quarter in 2016.  YOY financials were actually better at 41.2% however, the 4th quarter the Las Vegas Operations were down due to you guessed it reduced occupancy and down numbers for the casino, however, room ADR increased to $305 on average for an increase of around 4%.  Note that number as it will play up later.  Now for the fun part, both Vital Vegas here and MarC at EDGe Vegas here covered the announcement of Wynn West on yup you guessed it, the former New Frontier / Alon land.  Much larger rooms (650 sq ft and 2 bathrooms plus an 80″ TV..gives new meaning to movies on demand) at around 3,000 of them (estimated) in a new resort casino complex with an enclosed air-conditioned walkway over to the Wynn/Encore complex.  The Room Rate is expected to be $400-$500 per night (see that’s higher than the standard Wynn/Encore ADR)… Wynn Paradise Park is still going to happen as well and same room sizes so when he is done about 8,000 rooms total.  My wife would love that as she used to play at The Frontier and it would bring back good memories, and the room sizes are perfect especially the 2 bathrooms (she hates either waiting for someone or having someone rush her in the bathroom),  I’m in love with the 80″ TV (hopefully full 4K HDR + the in-room Alexa butler).  Renders are not available yet…. more to come on that later.

10) Hmmm, interesting the Regal United Artist Theaters at Showcase Mall have closed up according to LVSun here.  Combine that with the old Smith and Wollensky site and that’s a big set of building blocks to suddenly have available for the Mall.

11) McCarran airport hit a new record in 2017 48.5 Million Passengers arrived or departed from McCarran read LVSun here.  O.K. my next search is for 2017 numbers for Airbnb, something is off here… both LV Convention and McCarran are recording record number but Strip Resorts are down for the year.  While locals and downtown have improved it’s not enough to account for all these travelers.

12) Yup found the missing travelers, and it is Airbnb.  In 2017 Airbnb booked 500,000 travelers into their “home” rooms according to LVRJ here.  Either the resorts need to take notice and stop the nickel and diming the customer and figure out they have a new and very different challenger to their reign who can make anyone feel “at home”.  Airbnb actually doubled YoY in Las Vegas to become the companies largest customer count city so that’s a huge jump and it will affect the future of Las Vegas as banks and other creditors may see decreasing returns as a new option is taking large amounts of their clients’ room business away.  Could be the Airbnb is doing an Uber/Lyft effect and is now hitting resorts right in the room wallet.

13) If you drive into Las Vegas from the Kingman, AZ route, this is always good news, more of I-11 is opening Saturday read LVRJ here.  I can’t wait until October when the rest of it is complete and it shortens my trip through Boulder City by 45 minutes.  Come to think of it, you could drive out of Las Vegas use I-11 go over the Tillman Bridge and backtrack into Hoover Dam, it’s a less daunting drive and I like looking at the dam from the south side.  I’m old enough to remember the south spillway overflows being in use in the 1980’s.

14) Stations Casinos / Red Rock Resorts has some new jackpot winners at both Green Valley Ranch and Palace Station read LVRJ here.  Interesting they were both Wheel of Fortune quarter machines (betting $1.25 a spin).  Kudo’s to the winners.

15) Now there are two locations in Las Vegas you can have some noodle-less lasagna in a deep pizza crust as Giordano’s has the 2nd location open at 8730 W. Charleston Ave.  read LVRJ here.  I like the “lasagna” but the wait here is fairly long as they take at least 45 minutes to prep and cook a deep dish pie.  The odd thing to me is you save only 15 mins for a thin crust at least according to my waitress in 2015.

16) Inferno is at Paris, replacing the Circus 1903 show that only lasted 6 months.  Read Kats at LVRJ here, watch the video and form your own opinion, to me a Hawaiian Luau Dance troupe has more energy than this appears to have.  And correct me if I am wrong but is that still the old dance scaffolding from Jersey Boys being covered up by that material in the back of the theater?

17) Las Vegas Sands reported 4th Quarter and 2017 Year-End Earnings, and while they did great (in Macao and Singapore) in Las Vegas the 4th Quarter was only saved by Food and Beverage and Convention businesses as well as Slot Hold.  Read their report here.  The big news is the new Las Vegas music venue will have renderings released in a couple of weeks and construction will start this summer and be finished by 2020 read in LVRJ’s article here. 2020 will be a big reveal year for a lot of North Las Vegas Strip stuff.

18) Flavor Flav attacked at the South Point? You betcha, read LVRJ here, minor injuries and attacker was arrested and is on video throwing the first punch after Flavor Flav verbally “disrespected” the attacker’s mother.

19) This is good news, the Neonopolis owners have nearly “paid up” their $240K of debt to the city for the parking garage and the land leases.  4 more payments and they should be even with the city.  Read LVRJ here.

20) MarC of EDGe Vegas via travelvegas has a nice write up on which Hotel Rewards programs you can use with the Major Casino’s and more, as well as their own properties, read here.

21) MarC of EDGe Vegas also has via travelvegas a good write up on what to expect at the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend here.

22) EATER Vegas has some samplings of the new Osteria Costa Menu at The Mirage (where Samba Brazillian Steakhouse was), read here.  Oh and an opening date of Feb. 1.  I am not a big seafood lover so I will probably pass on this, but if you love Italian and Seafood have at it!!!!

23) EATER Vegas also has it that the China Tang in MGM Grand will be open by Jan 26th as well here.

24) LA Times has the story originally reported by Vital Vegas as to the finished product of the VR’ification of NewYork NewYork’s Rollercoaster here.  Interesting that they make Tropicana a parking lot and remove the Eifel Tower of the Paris resort….oh and move Vegas Vic to the airport.

25) Well if you were heading into Las Vegas or are there already for AVN and wanted to see Stormy Daniels at Chateau at Paris, you may have to slum it up a bit as that was cancelled and she’s announced she will be at Little Darlings on this Saturday read LVSun here.  If I remember that was a dive strip club that you could only see the sign from I-15 in a sketchy industrial section mid-town.  I remember hearing it was a no alcohol club but you could BYOB in a Brown Bag….if that’s the case it could be full nude.

That’s it for the news around town this week… and now over to our Editor-in-Chief, LasVegasJunkie, for our stuff and more.

Gracias Señor BigAZMarty! We had some technical difficulties with the website earlier this week but were back up and running!

1. Vegas Bright photographer Greg C. documents the previous decade on the North Strip and its future prospects.
2. Vegas Bright writer BSiegs returns with a new series, Vegas Unhinged: How to burn a day in Las Vegas when your gambling budget has bit the dust.
3. Chief Editor LasVegasJunkie returns with the Las Vegas Junkie Podcast Episode 10… the official-unofficial Vegas Bright Podcast. 

That’s all Folks!

[Photo Cred. Inferno Las Vegas]

BigAzMarty

A computer professional who has worked at several types of positions with several different businesses and still learning and changing.
Introduced properly to Las Vegas and Laughlin by the spouse and have been going ever since 1990.
A frequent visitor from not to far away where it’s almost always 10 degrees warmer than Vegas.