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Monday, October 31, 2005

It's Good to be a Land Owner in the Las Vegas High Rise Condo Hotel Market

There's probably no better indication of how high rise fever is sweeping Las Vegas than the asking price of Manuel Corchuelo's 700 square foot home.

Who is Manuel Corchuelo?

He's just an average working class joe like me or you who just happened to be smart enough back in 1978 to buy a home located right by billions of dollars of new and proposed high-rise condo projects.

For much of the past 25 years, you couldn't give his dead-locked piece of land away. Today, it's on the market for $1.2 million - and he'll get it! Not bad for a $30,000 investment.

Corchuelo's home is one block off Las Vegas Boulevard and across the street from the 41-story Allure high rise project currently under construction. Card dealers and nude sunbathing strippers used to live in the neighborhood, giving the area there the nickname "Naked City". Then it became a hotbed of crime and prostitution. But now, it's better than California beach-front property.

My advice to Las Vegas downtown real estate owners: hold out for more!

Thursday, October 27, 2005

HotelExecutive.com Makes Excellent High Rise Condo Hotel Resource

You just can't get enough information on the high rise market. I recently discovered Hotelexecutive.com and must say it has a wide variety of interesting and informative articles regarding the high rise condo hotel industry nationwide, all without advertising or commercial bias. And I like that.

In fact, the 10 year old company has amassed a huge volume of original articles targeted to the hospitaliy professional in their online library containing more than 1,500 articles which more than 15,000 people read every day.

Unfortunately, it's not free. But if you're looking for insights into this market, the subsription fee of $29.95/month is well worth the cost.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

The Cosmopolitan High Rise Condo Hotel is Back!

It's hard to believe that a $1.8 billion dollar Las Vegas high rise condo hotel would get overlooked, but that's exactly what has been happening with the Cosmopolitan project.

With Trump and CityCenter on the forefront in the news, Cosmo's recent formal groundbreaking event served as a quick "heads-up" that they're to be reckoned with as well. Despite the rainy weather conditions, Cosmopolitan CEO Ian Bruce Eichner showcased the 3,000 condo hotel project in front of an audience of over 150 industry professionals.

Although pricey, sales have been brisk at the Cosmo, with over 1,300 units reserved in less than 120 days. Another 700 units will be put on the market shortly. Contact me for info on how you can reserve one. With over $100 million in non-refundable deposits, the project looks strong. Add to that the strength of the Hyatt Corporation which will be managing the hotel-only rooms and the condo leasing program for the unit owners under the Grand Hyatt brand and you have a project with tremendous potential.

But the best part of this project? - Location, location, location! The Cosmopolitan will front Las Vegas Boulevard at the corner of Harmon Avenue, just south of Bellagio. In my opinion, it's presently the best located condo hotel in the Las Vegas market.

Perini Construction will be building the Cosmopolitan infrastructure and when the project's complete, it will include a
75,000-square-foot casino, 300,000 square feet of retail, restaurants, entertainment venues and 150,000 square feet of meeting space, with outdoor pools areas including a 5-acre beach club overlooking the strip. Glass-shrouded dual hotel towers will rise 600 feet above the Strip when the project opens in mid-2008.

Don't be fooled by the lack of media coverage regarding this project. Cosmo's definitely worth a look for your condo hotel wishlist.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

MGM Closing Boardwalk Casino to Make Way for Project CityCenter

The Boardwalk hotel casino will be closing its doors forever on January 9th to make way for MGM Grand's CityCenter Project. The site is to be cleared for the start of construction on the $5 billion dollar 66-acre parcel development which will include a 60-story, 4,000-room hotel-casino, boutique hotels, retail shopping, and 1,640 luxury condo hotel units targeted for a late 2009 completion date.

The Boardwalk is the Rodney Dangerfield of Las Vegas as it's currently located right by the city's best known resorts but never got any respect. Most people never even heard of it. MGM will certainly change that quickly.

And who can forget Dangerfield's character in the classic movie "Caddyshack" where he played milionaire Al Czervik - and how did Czervik make all his money?... Condo development!

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Newport Lofts Announce Official Ground Breaking Event for their Las Vegas High Rise Loft Condos

The Newport Lofts Las Vegas high rise project has just announced that their official groundbreaking event will be held this Thursday (October 20th) from 6:00 to 9:00pm at the Golden Nugget Hotel in downtown Las Vegas.

With construction well underway, you'll be able to see first hand what will be the second high-rise to be completed in the Arts District in downtown Las Vegas. Plus they'll be serving beverages and hors d'oeuvres.

It'll be a good event to attend because not only do you have the option of participating in their final sales release, but you'll also get a chance to hear Mayor Goodman speaking about all the
exciting new projects, plans and happenings that are taking shape Downtown.

Seating is limited to this event and you must RSVP to attend. Please send me an email and I'll get you on the list.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Hard Rock High Rise Condo Hotel Project Gets Financing

The Bungalows Residences Flats at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel has just signed a construction and financing commitment with Credit Suisse / First Boston worth $1,250,000,000.00 related to the development of their proposed residential and resort high rise condo hotel project located at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

That number is staggering!... Let's rock!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Celebrity architects recruited for MGM Project CityCenter High Rise Condo Development

When you're George Steinbrenner, you buy the best players you can get for your baseball team. When you're MGM Mirage, you compile a slate of celebrity architects for your Project CityCenter Las Vegas Strip development as they've been lining up superstar architects from around the world to design components of its CityCenter project.

Just as attracting celebrities to purchase units in their condo projects, big-name designers such as Cesar Pelli, Sir Norman Foster, James KM Cheng, Rafael Vinoly and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates mean big-time business and will certainly add plenty of glitz to the $5 billion, 66-acre project.

Add to that Perini Building as the general contractor, Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn Architects being the master-plan architect, and Tishman Construction as the project manager, Project CityCenter has high hopes of opening by November 2009. And when this 60-story, 4,000 room condo/hotel casino with two 400-room non-gaming hotels, 1,640 luxury condos and 500,000 square feet of retail shops with dining and entertainment options does open, it'll be larger than Rockerfeller Center, SoHo, and Times Square combined! Talk about Manhattanization!

MGM Mirage is banking on an upscale, sophisticated visitor that wants to live and play in a dynamic, urban setting created by big-name architects.

The resumes of these celebrity architects include the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the new stadium design for the National Football League's New York Jets, and the redesign of the Reichstag in Berlin. The architects all share a flair for edgy, kinetic designs that make cultural statements. MGM's roster of celebrity designers adds some high-octane branding power to the development.

We just have to hope they all fair better than George Steinbrenner's Yankees. Let me know if you'd like to be on the interest list for this project.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Las Vegas High Rise Condo Hotel Blog Now Indexed on Yahoo!

This isn't really high rise condo hotel news, but it should be of interest to all who blog or read blogs. Yahoo just announced that they are now adding internet journal entries and blogs to their online news search tool to supplement professional media offerings.

Under their new approach, a keyword search for online news will include a list of relevant blogs displayed in a box to the right of the results collected from mainstream journalism.

Although this strategy will serve as a test of the public's appetite for information from alternative sources, I see this as huge vindication to the many bloggers out there that are making their voices known through their writing in addition to validation for the growing number of people that are bypassing newspapers, magazines, and broadcast media to get their information from unconventional sources - like this blog!

I bet Google follows suit shortly.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Priority List Forming for Las Vegas Central High Rise Condos

Be one of the first to preview the Las Vegas Central high rise condo. The Central is featuring high rise living in Las Vegas from the $300K's. If you'd like to be kept informed regarding their upcoming priority preview presentation, let me know.

Specific details on this project are sketchy right now, but I guess that's why it's good to be kept on the priority list so you'll know immediately when new information becomes available. And for $300K, in this market ... a little information can't hurt.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Las Vegas High Rises to Serve As Casino Communities

The Las Vegas high rise condo hotel market is moving towards the "casino community" concept rather than just stand-alone residential buildings said a real estate industry expert.

If you real this blog often, you'll see he referenced one of my favorite upcoming projects too. In his keynote speech at this year's Society of Industrieal and Office Realtors (SIOR) real estate symposium, Richard Lee, vice president of First American Title Co. said the following regarding the MGM Mirage Project City Center:

"It's the most ambitious project of its kind. The first phase is a planned 18 million square feet which will include hotels, condos, time shares and a retail component."


Lee also mentioned that there is more than $50 billion in planned and under construction projects along the Strip and radiating out on both sides of Interstate 15, but until a project is under vertical construction, it is debatable as to whether or not it will happen - and we couldn't agree with him more.

Other planned projects Lee noted as casino communities are the Hard Rock and its complex of planned condo units and the $3 billion Las Ramblas, a partnership between Las Vegas-based development group Centra and the Related Cos. that will include a casino as well as a spa, health club, dining and shopping.

Don't wait any longer to find the community that best fits your needs.

Monday, October 03, 2005

Trump Las Vegas High Rise Condo Hotel Executive Hopes to Sell Himself Out of a Job

There was an interesting article in the business section of yesterdays Las Vegas Review Journal about Jack Christie, the vice president of sales and marketing at the Trump International Hotel & Tower Las Vegas high rise.

The idea behind the article is that when every condo hotel is sold, there'll be nothing else to sell so he'll need another job. An excellent way at looking at it, I think. With Mr. Christie's impressive background, it's no wonder sales over at Trump have been so strong.

As with all these Las Vegas high rise condo hotels, when reservations are converted to contracts, you generally see a dropout of sorts, which creates unwelcome unit availabilities. Such is the case in Trump's first tower where some have attractive units have become available once again. If you like the glamour and glitz that is Trump, contact me - the prices for Trump's second tower will only be higher.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Be An Informed Las Vegas High Rise Condo Hotel Investor

To borrow a phrase from a popular commercial, "what can professional football teach us about high rise investing?"

Today's game between the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots versus the underachieving 1-2 San Diego Chargers should have been a slam dunk, no-contest victory for the Pats. Instead, when the game was over, it was the Chargers who were celebrating, and in the process snapping New England's 21 consecutive win streak at home.

What's interesting about this game is that the smart money handicappers in Las Vegas all picked the Chargers to win today's game and made a ton of money on it. Why? They did their research and knew New England was a pretty beat up team and didn't have the necessary resources to pull out the win, despite all their glamour and championship history.

Guess what folks? There are plenty of "New Englands" out there in the Las Vegas high rise condo hotel community. Like the Vegas sportsbook handicappers, you have to do your homework and research each and every project to determine who's in a position to win, who's in the position to pull the "upset", and who's in the position to dominate the market.

"But how can I do that?", I hear you say. "After all, I live in New York (or where ever) and can't monitor the projects like I know I should."

Aha! That's exactly what I thought you'd say. That's why this blog is here. And that's why you need a knowledgeable agent to guide you through the maze of projects. Sportsbooks love the uninformed gambler. Don't be the uninformed high rise investor, or you'll likely be on the wrong end of the Patriots-Chargers game, a game that was like giving away money for those who did their homework.