MGM Mirage’s love of the arts is in evidence at the Bellagio Gallery, where a Rembrandt masterpiece is within conversation distance of its adoring interlocutor. For the Las Vegas company, gaming is definitely the basis upon which lavish projects are built, and at the CityCenter the presence of a Henry Moore sculpture is definitely not Art for Art’s sake. Indeed, MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren has already claimed that a concrete alcove outside Crystals Mall, framed by trees and close to the Moore work as his ‘pocket park. In the years to come, millions of Las Vegas visitors will find places to cherish at CityCenter, also.

The development of Las Vegas into the cosmopolitan showpiece that is CityCenter has not been without its problems, and before the unveiling of its piece de resistance, Aria Hotel-Casino, tonight, almost at the end of the opening of a cluster of skyscrapers, casinos and shops nearly that took six years to finish, about US $8.5 billion, and the threat of Chapter 11 for the company, Murren, said that the CityCenter project was the culmination of his quest to remake Las Vegas city by wagering the future of his company.

For some time now, pundits and Vegas watchers have been wondering on the way in which the gaming capital of the world would reinvent itself, following the advent of Macao as the gambling destination with greater revenue base sin the world. Murren says that CityCenter is "the evolution of Las Vegas into a sophisticated, multidimensional city," with 67 acres that feature a central boulevard that's the width of New York's Park Avenue.

As the CityCenter launch coincides with one of the gravest declines in the tourist industry, the luxury retail space of the complex is only half occupied, although the company says most storefronts will be filled by the end of next year. Its Vdara Hotel & Spa, originally envisioned as a hotel-condo complex, has opened with only a third of its 1,495 hotel rooms, and The Harmon, a hotel and condo tower had its area reduced by half.

In 2007, MGM Mirage sold half of CityCenter to Dubai World for US $2.47 billion, when the Emirates investors also purchased US $1.2 billion of MGM Mirage stock at a premium. As the investment settled on US $8.5 billion in 2008, Dubai World filed suit and refused to pay its monthly share of construction costs, accusing MGM Mirage of "excessively spending without regard to appropriate accountability."

As Murren negotiated with lenders and reached an agreement with Dubai World to drop its suit and resume funding CityCenter, the Las Vegas property market crashed, and many buyers with deposits for multimillion-dollar condos were threatening to pull out, until MGM Mirage agreed to cut the condo prices by about 30%. Murren defends the company’s decision on the basis that the bad economic conditions are nearing their end, and: "If you were thinking purely about cost, we would put linoleum here. You have to decide: Do you want to just build a Popsicle stick or something as gorgeous as this?" The latest reinvention of Las Vegas has started and CityCenter is leading the pack. (E-12.16.09)

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