Thread Rating:

EvenBob
EvenBob
  • Threads: 442
  • Posts: 29573
Joined: Jul 18, 2010
March 1st, 2013 at 7:05:24 PM permalink
Just heard on Five Hundy by Midnight http://www.fivehundybymidnight.com/fhbm/2013/02/
that MGM announced all of City Center is for
sale except Aria. And it will no longer be
called City Center. So here's a chance to
pick up some bargains on something that
was doomed from the day it opened.
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
onenickelmiracle
onenickelmiracle
  • Threads: 212
  • Posts: 8277
Joined: Jan 26, 2012
March 1st, 2013 at 10:29:26 PM permalink
A more direct link
http://www.vegastripping.com/news/blog/4893/exclusive-mgm-to-drop-citycenter-name/
I am a robot.
SanchoPanza
SanchoPanza
  • Threads: 34
  • Posts: 3502
Joined: May 10, 2010
March 2nd, 2013 at 9:30:36 AM permalink
Quote: EvenBob

Just heard on Five Hundy by Midnight that MGM announced all of City Center is for
sale except Aria. And it will no longer be called City Center.


Maybe they are just trying to raise funds to purchase the Revel.
100xOdds
100xOdds
  • Threads: 663
  • Posts: 4552
Joined: Feb 5, 2012
March 2nd, 2013 at 9:46:45 AM permalink
Quote: EvenBob

Just heard on Five Hundy by Midnight http://www.fivehundybymidnight.com/fhbm/2013/02/
that MGM announced all of City Center is for
sale except Aria. And it will no longer be
called City Center. So here's a chance to
pick up some bargains on something that
was doomed from the day it opened.



ok.. u peaked my curiousity. wiki'd the City Center.
WTF were they thinking?

2 hotels??
a hotel-condo -> WTF is this?
twin 37-story condos -> They started building in 2006 during the housing boom. Doh on the bubble bursting when this completed in 2010


Problems:
1) With a total cost of approximately $9.2 billion, CityCenter is the largest privately financed development in the United States.
The original cost estimate was $4 billion, but it was pushed up by rising construction costs and design changes.

2) The Harmon Hotel was going to be a non-gaming boutique hotel originally set to be 49 stories, but it was cut to 25 stories after construction defects were discovered. On November 13, 2010 the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported[25] that MGM Resorts International plans to demolish the Harmon Hotel due to its previously revealed defects


Why 2 hotels?
What is a hotel-condo?

omg they must be taking a bath on the twin condo buildings due to the housing bubble bursting.
i guess they built both at same time? if one at a time, then they wouldnt have built the 2nd tower?
Craps is paradise (Pair of dice). Lets hear it for the SpeedCount Mathletes :)
boymimbo
boymimbo
  • Threads: 17
  • Posts: 5994
Joined: Nov 12, 2009
March 2nd, 2013 at 10:15:57 AM permalink
A hotel-condo are usually large hotel rooms that are owned by individuals but operated as part of a named structure. It offers ownership for the individual and a revenue stream. The hotel acts as property manager. The individual owner can stay in the room based on an agreement they work out with the hotel.
----- You want the truth! You can't handle the truth!
Ayecarumba
Ayecarumba
  • Threads: 236
  • Posts: 6763
Joined: Nov 17, 2009
March 2nd, 2013 at 10:43:24 AM permalink
One of the condos was turned into the Cosmopolitan.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - Leonardo da Vinci
AlanMendelson
AlanMendelson
  • Threads: 167
  • Posts: 5937
Joined: Oct 5, 2011
March 2nd, 2013 at 12:07:31 PM permalink
The City Center project was a stroke of genius until the recession hit.

I remember when the Miami Beach condo market crashed in the late 1960s and you could buy an ocean front condo for $3,000.

I remember when South Beach (Miami Beach) looked like bombed out Berlin in 1987 and you could buy a condo for $3,000.
thecesspit
thecesspit
  • Threads: 53
  • Posts: 5936
Joined: Apr 19, 2010
March 2nd, 2013 at 12:46:26 PM permalink
Quote: Ayecarumba

One of the condos was turned into the Cosmopolitan.



I don't think the Cosmo was ever part of the MGM's City Centre plans, but was going to be a hotel-condo originally. Also fell foul of the housing crash.
"Then you can admire the real gambler, who has neither eaten, slept, thought nor lived, he has so smarted under the scourge of his martingale, so suffered on the rack of his desire for a coup at trente-et-quarante" - Honore de Balzac, 1829
FleaStiff
FleaStiff
  • Threads: 265
  • Posts: 14484
Joined: Oct 19, 2009
March 2nd, 2013 at 12:47:46 PM permalink
Quote: boymimbo

A hotel-condo are usually large hotel rooms that are owned by individuals but operated as part of a named structure. It offers ownership for the individual and a revenue stream. The hotel acts as property manager. The individual owner can stay in the room based on an agreement they work out with the hotel.



The hotel acts as property manager... but has several conflicts of interest in doing so. The hotel wants to rent out the condos but the renting-public only wants to rent the premium suites (high floors, large, luxurious). The hotel's expenses, borne by all condo owners will bring income largely to the premium units that are being rented out so that although all owners have received promises of a stream of rental income, the promises are in reality only applicable to the owners of premium units. Expenses such as for Gym Equipment and Personnel thus are paid by all condo owners but benefit primarily the owners of the premium condos that actually get rented out. Owners of bargain units pay steep rates for services that rarely benefit them. If the Condo Hotel was poorly sold, it may appear to be "Dark" so additional expenses to keep up appearances will often erode the promised income stream that even the owners of premium units envisioned.

Harmon Hotel is a hotbed of conflicts. The truncated tower would never have been economically viable, particularly when its so difficult to rent even a truncated tower when there are rumors of additional and severe structural deficits. MGM prefered to raze the structure and be done with it, but Dubai investors didn't like being stuck with the bill or even a portion of it.
kenarman
kenarman
  • Threads: 28
  • Posts: 966
Joined: Nov 22, 2009
March 2nd, 2013 at 12:58:42 PM permalink
Quote: FleaStiff

The hotel acts as property manager... but has several conflicts of interest in doing so. The hotel wants to rent out the condos but the renting-public only wants to rent the premium suites (high floors, large, luxurious). The hotel's expenses, borne by all condo owners will bring income largely to the premium units that are being rented out so that although all owners have received promises of a stream of rental income, the promises are in reality only applicable to the owners of premium units. Expenses such as for Gym Equipment and Personnel thus are paid by all condo owners but benefit primarily the owners of the premium condos that actually get rented out. Owners of bargain units pay steep rates for services that rarely benefit them. If the Condo Hotel was poorly sold, it may appear to be "Dark" so additional expenses to keep up appearances will often erode the promised income stream that even the owners of premium units envisioned.

Harmon Hotel is a hotbed of conflicts. The truncated tower would never have been economically viable, particularly when its so difficult to rent even a truncated tower when there are rumors of additional and severe structural deficits. MGM prefered to raze the structure and be done with it, but Dubai investors didn't like being stuck with the bill or even a portion of it.



Decent hotel condos use a revenue sharing formulae based on original purchase price so that all owners share in what ever revenue is generated. They are usually a very poor investment but that is how they are sold, only maginally better than a time share.
Be careful when you follow the masses, the M is sometimes silent.
rxwine
rxwine
  • Threads: 217
  • Posts: 12678
Joined: Feb 28, 2010
August 27th, 2013 at 9:02:44 PM permalink
Quote:

The Harmon Hotel, which was to have been one of CityCenter’s lodging choices when the complex opened almost four years ago, can be demolished, a judge has ruled.



They came, they built, they demolish.

Quote:

District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez on Friday approved CityCenter’s petition to tear down the 26-story structure, acknowledging the public safety risk if the building were to collapse during an earthquake



http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-las-vegas-harmon-can-be-demolished-citycenter-20130826,0,1228727.story
Sanitized for Your Protection
EvenBob
EvenBob
  • Threads: 442
  • Posts: 29573
Joined: Jul 18, 2010
August 27th, 2013 at 9:12:11 PM permalink
I really like that blue building, its stunning among
all the rest. What a shame.
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
  • Jump to: