{"id":7189,"date":"2014-04-02T02:08:38","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T02:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/2014\/04\/02\/cover-up-is-over-las-vegas-sands-moving-past-from-million-dollar-tarp\/"},"modified":"2014-04-02T02:08:38","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T02:08:38","slug":"cover-up-is-over-las-vegas-sands-moving-past-from-million-dollar-tarp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/2014\/04\/02\/cover-up-is-over-las-vegas-sands-moving-past-from-million-dollar-tarp\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Cover-up\u2019 is over: Las Vegas Sands moving past from \u2018million-dollar\u2019 tarp"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"\"
\n\tThe unfinished tower (Smaller one on right) known as the St. Regis Residences condominiums is seen with giant sheets of cloth printed with the image of a completed building on Saturday, March 29, 2014. (David Becker\/Las Vegas Review-Journal)<\/span><\/p>\n

\tBy HOWARD STUTZ
\n\tLAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
\n\tAn unfinished Strip condominium tower between The Venetian and Palazzo may soon see a new life.<\/p>\n

\tBut Las Vegas Sands Corp. President Michael Leven said it was still unclear what the company plans to do with the building that has been covered the past three years by a \u201cmillion-dollar\u201d tarp.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe\u2019re going to do something. We just don\u2019t have the answer,\u201d Leven said, discussing the St. Regis-branded 400-unit, $600 million condominium project that was halted in November 2008 during the company\u2019s financial crisis.<\/p>\n

\tAt the time, Las Vegas Sands, facing a potential bankruptcy, said it would save $1.8 billion by stopping the St. Regis construction and delaying developments in Macau.<\/p>\n

\tToday, money is not an issue for Las Vegas Sands, which produced $13.77 billion in net revenue in 2013 and has a market capitalization of more than $67 billion.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIt\u2019s not a financial decision anymore, but we want to do the right thing,\u201d Leven said.<\/p>\n

\tRestarting the building as a condominium project doesn\u2019t seem likely, he said, since the high-end, high-rise residential market remains a challenged business model.<\/p>\n

\tLeven said the company paid for a study that looked into converting the tower into a time share, \u201cbut the numbers didn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHe said the building could be finished as a third hotel-casino, with its own entrance. But that idea is also considered a long-shot option.<\/p>\n

\tThe company even considered making the building a hotel room expansion for The Venetian and Palazzo, which have a combined 7,000 hotel rooms and suites.<\/p>\n

\tFor now, the empty and unfinished building sits above the high-end fashion retailer Barney\u2019s New York.<\/p>\n

\tIn 2011, Las Vegas Sands pulled down a construction crane and covered the unfinished steel and concrete structure with a specially designed tarp that makes the building look finished from far away.<\/p>\n

\tLeven said the cover cost $1 million.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI couldn\u2019t stand looking at that steel,\u201d said Leven, whose third-floor office has a view of the tower.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cOne day I was out at the pool and I realized our guests were looking up and staring at the steel,\u201d Leven said. \u201cWe put the cover on it and it\u2019s held up well. You sometimes forget it is there if you walk by.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tBut Las Vegas Sands doesn\u2019t want an unfinished building. Neither does Clark County, Leven said.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThey may make us take it down if we don\u2019t do something,\u201d Leven said.<\/p>\n

\tThe St. Regis tower is just one of several unfinished buildings on the Strip.<\/p>\n

\tThe former Echelon site is expected to be converted into the $4 billion Resorts World Las Vegas by 2017. Malaysia-based Genting Group is expected to begin construction sometime this year.<\/p>\n

\tFinancial issues halted work on the Fontainebleau Las Vegas in April 2009 when the proposed 3,889-room project was 70 percent complete. Corporate raider and investor Carl Icahn purchased the site out of bankruptcy in 2010 for $150 million, but never restarted the development.<\/p>\n

\tIcahn sold off room furnishings and items and many Strip real estate analysts expect the 59-story building will eventually be demolished.<\/p>\n

\tTwo older casinos \u2014 the Sahara and Bill\u2019s Gamblin\u2019 Hall \u2014 are being converted into the SLS Las Vegas and The Cromwell.<\/p>\n

\tLeven said the St. Regis Tower \u201chas a very expensive foundation\u201d and Las Vegas Sands needs to find a use for the tower that makes financial sense for the company.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIt stares us in the face all the time,\u201d Leven said.<\/p>\n

\n

Replies:<\/h3>\n

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The unfinished tower (Smaller one on right) known as the St. Regis Residences condominiums is seen with giant sheets of cloth printed with the image of a completed building on Saturday, March 29, 2014. (David Becker\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) By HOWARD…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}