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Sunday, December 13, 2009

Las Vegas...Steve Wynn jazzing up Encore! Surf''s up...



I imagine myself in this hammock already!








Steve Wynn is jazzing up Encore!

I was out for a stroll the other morning when a ghastly mess on the strip caught my eye.

Up-front and center, outside the Encore Hotel complex - one construction crew was erecting unsightly chain-link fences and overly-bright hard plastic barriers to create a pedestrian walkway - as another shovelled up debris from a low-level structure that a wrecking ball had smashed into smithereens.

Wasn't this parcel of land owned by Steve Wynn?

At one section of the block where two-ton trucks rumbled in and out of a make-shift entrance, I spied a worker within arm's length of me, so I decided to go to the horse's mouth for information so-to-speak.

"Isn't this part of the Encore Hotel property owned by Wynn," I innocently asked the surprised female construction worker.

"Uh-huh," she grumbled back.

"He (we all know who he is, right?) is tearing down this section to put in an 18 million-dollar beach club," she shouted above he rising din.

"'Wow," was about the only response I could muster on the heels of such staggering news.

A beach club for 18 million smackeroos?

At this juncture, I put my thinking cap on.

Does Mr. Wynn intend to fabricate a beach setting - complete with rolling waves and warm sand  oozing between the toes - to jazz up the Hotel complex a tad?

I expect he'll also be simulating the soothing sounds of the surf as it crashes oh-so-gently on the shore at Wynn's Beach.

True, the interior of the Encore is sumptuous and inviting.

But, with exception to the waterfall and grounds brimming with lush foliage, the overall outdoor image of Encore and the sister Hotel at the complex, is nothing short of the plain-Jane variety.

Moreso, me thinks that Mr. Wynn doesn't hanker up to the idea of being left in the cold.

The Aria and Mandarin Hotels (about to swing open their doors at the CityCenter this Wednesdayon  Dec. 16th) will probably steal alot of Mr. Wynn's thunder in coming days.

Even with Garth Brooks under his house wing, the Encore is vulnerable to rapidly-changing resort trends, that are luring the tourist class, "whales", and European travellers, doww new boulevards and eye-catching vistas in sin city.

Cut-rate "room sales" online are also taking a bite out of potential revenue as well.

So, Mr. Wynn - visionary that he is - has obviously hatched up a scheme to guarantee his place in the sun alongside the big players in the Desert Oasis.

Well, you Wynn some, and 'ya lose sum.

It will be interesting to see how the transformation pans out for the mercurial Wynn, and translates into greenbacks, eh?





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