It’s a new development to rival Caesars and MGM’s offerings, but does Las Vegas actually need it?
The Las Vegas Strip has more than just casinos. Sure, that famous 4.2-mile section of road gets its identity from the towering Caesars Entertainment (CZR) – Get Caesars Entertainment Inc Report, MGM Resorts International (MGM) – Get MGM Resorts International Report, Wynn Resorts (WYNN) – Get Wynn Resorts, Limited Report, and the other iconic casinos, offer so much more.
You have an arena, of course, T-Mobile Arena which hosts the Las Vegas Golden Knights NHL team as well as concerts, and countless other music and/or performance venues that host everything from huge headliners like Celine Dion or Adele to big-name DJs, classic acts, and Las Vegas icons like Wayne Newton or Carrot Top.
The Las Vegas Strip has also become a destination for unique entertainment. That ranges from the variety of street buskers performing and oddball characters looking to entice you into taking a picture, to massive displays like the Fountains at Bellagio or the soon-to-be-defunct Volcano at The Mirage.
And Vegas, of course, has one other thing on The Strip (aside from a copious marijuana smell), it has a tremendous amount of shopping. There are countless malls and shopping areas ranging from the upscale like the Caesars Forum mall and the shops at many MGM hotels to the more practical Miracle Mile Shops at Caesars Planet Hollywood.
The Las Vegas Strip has a lot of retail — and while there’s a lot of money to be spent on that relatively small strip of land, it’s hard to know if the area needs another massive retail development.
The owner of the site which once housed MGM’s non-gaming Harmon Hotel believes that the area will not only tolerate more retail but welcome it.
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Las Vegas Never Has Enough of Anything
Part of the City Center project, The Harmon was troubled from the beginning and structural defects led to it being demolished. The prime site is now being developed as Project63, a four-story retail complex at the southwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
It’s a joint development between Las Vegas developer Brett Torino, and New York’s Flag Luxury Group. The project has been nearing completion with the first group of retail tenants expected to open in October.
Torino has made a big bet that Las Vegas visitors want more shopping, but he’s very confident that they do. Retailers must be as well with the developer telling the paper that 80% of the space has already gone under contract. He has not, however, revealed which companies will be occupying the space.
That, he said, was because “the reason that we don’t is that at least five of our tenants are what they refer to as a flagship opportunity. They want to make their own announcements. We don’t want to get in their way,” the Review-Journal reported.
Does the Las Vegas Strip Need More Retail?
As the Las Vegas Strip has grown more crowded, repetition has become more necessary. It’s harder to walk along the central and south sections of the Las Vegas Strip with many of the sidewalks being broken up with escalators to overpasses that cross intersections. That makes even a mile-long trip a bit of a chore — and one that nobody would want to undertake during the torrid summer heat.
More shopping — especially in a location that lacks a similar plaza — may make sense.
“I’ve always been bullish that there’s demand for it; the type of demand changes over time because the nature of retail is changing over time,” Torino told the Review-Journal. “When I built my first project on the Strip, which was almost 30 years ago, people were out there pumping retail. Today they’re not only pumping retail, but they’re pumping exposure because we get a lot of people walking by these projects and up and down the Strip.”
