Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

This time on the show:

* ARIA ARIA ARIA!
* Fontainebleau

http://www.vegasgangpodcast.com

Feel free to add your comments below...

Live from Vegas Podcast-a-palooza 2 @ The Palms.

We discuss CityCenter with our guest MGM Mirage Sr. VP of Public Relations Gordon Absher.

http://www.vegasgangpodcast.com

Feel free to add your comments below...

Las Vegas Weekly writer Richard Abowitz was on-hand this past weekend for our second annual Vegas Podcast-a-palooza at The Palms. The resulting article is now available online:

http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2009/oct/21/new-media-hits-strip-podcast--palooza/

More after the jump...

On Monday, we got a tour of PH Towers, the condo-hotel-fractional-ownership building set to open in December on the Planet Hollywood property.

My photos are here: PH Towers Gallery

Along the ride for the tour was Steve Friess, who wrote it up also, as well as big-time Vegas Twitter maven VegasBill.

Thanks to @phVegas for organizing the event for Vegas Podcast-a-palooza attendees. As for that event, I'll have a post about it and the audio of the shows up as soon as humanly possible.

We wake up to a story about MGM taking $1.1 billion in charges against CityCenter.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/oct/20/mgm-mirage-take-11-billion-charge-citycenter/

No big surprise, this is required by the accountants and no one could argue that the value of these assets hasn't fallen... though 31% is a big number. Kerkorian is even looking to potentially reduce his stake.

In other more interesting news, I was able to take a gander at a few shots of Aria's interiors (see Chuck's take here). I won't be publishing these photos but like VT, I'm happy to give my impressions.

Continue after the jump...

Update: Not to pimp this too much but this offer for Aria came across from MGM Mirage - $160 for some nights.

http://clk.atdmt.com/MGM/go/181980103/direct/01/?kbid= 26584&m=0

Also, I'm happy to answer questions about the stuff I've seen, if you have any.

Chuck's spent some more time analyzing the materials and has some more thoughts.

Really cool video that David posted on Stiffs and Georges showing the interior of the FBleau project as it stands.

Does it look 70% complete? I know the last 30% would be basically all the finishes but it seems far off that mark to my untrained eye.

Video embedded after the jump.

We have a last minute scheduling change related to this Saturday's Podcast-a-palooza event at The Palms.

Our guest for the Vegas Gang, Alan Feldman, has a last minute obligation that will prevent him from attending. In his place we will have Gordon Absher, VP of Public Affairs for MGM Mirage. Gordon's been running point on a lot of City Center related stuff and I'm sure he'll be a fantastic guest. Before MGM Mirage, Gordon was at Mandalay Resort Group and has also worked in Nevada politics.

The rest of the lineup remains the same and we look forward to seeing you there.

I'll try not to go overboard on the 'Palooza stuff this week but I did want to mention that the good peoples at Planet Hollywood have been gracious enough to provide some potential prizes for Podcast-a-palooza guests.

Chuck has the details: http://www.vegastripping.com/news/news.php?news_id=2926

Thanks to them for supporting the event. One of their stars, Holly Madison, will be interviewed by Steve & Miles of The Strip Podcast.

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Alexandra Berzon, in her new gig as a WSJ reporter, has a story up on WSJ.com discussing the Fontainebleau project on the North Las Vegas Strip.

The story examines one of the most looming issues for FBleau - there are potential bidders but the place will need $1.2 to $2.0 billion in work before it can welcome any guests - the numbers just don't pencil out.

That location, without all of the other projects that are now delayed or shelved, combined with the collapse of the condo market, means that the project is worth a mere fraction of what it would have been.

Prospective buyer Penn National Gaming may be ready to submit a bid - and it may be as low as $300 million.

We'll see how this all shakes out.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704882404574465874047672190.html (Subscription Required)

I can't really imagine a scenario in which the project is imploded for a re-do - even at close to zero, it seems it would be cheaper to buy this and finish it... right?

Vegas Podcast-a-palooza is next Saturday, the 17th @ The Palms.

I'm very excited to meet listeners, see friends from last year and generally have a good time. For those that *can't* be there in person, I'm about 99.9% sure we'll have a live stream through UStream.TV.

The show will broadcast here, starting just before the live broadcast at 3:45pm PT:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/vegas-podcast-a-palooza

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Gaming stocks ended the 3rd Quarter with very nice share price increases. Now, what will happen when CityCenter opens?

Strip stocks stage September surge
LV Sands, MGM Mirage, Wynn Resorts rise