Casino news source: Las Vegas Business Press - http://www.lvbusinesspress.com/
Goodbye Hyatt, hello Loews
New name, new marketing strategy for Lake Las Vegas resort
BY VALERIE MILLER
A resort in Lake Las Vegas has a new name and a slightly different look. But don't expect to see gambling come back at what is now the Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort.
Loews Hotels Co-Chairman Jonathan Tisch said the resort's 8,000-square-foot casino is gone for good. It was closed in November by Hyatt after the Henderson resort's owner, Santa Barbara-based Transcontinental Corp., sold the then-Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas Resort to Loews and an undisclosed investor.
"Loews is not in the gaming business and we felt that the space could be better utilized," Tisch said, "and with the casino in the (MonteLago) village, if our guests wanted to gamble, they could go to town and gamble there."
The casino was not that hot a commodity, anyway, added Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort Managing Director Dale McDaniel. "It is easier to sell (the hotel) without the casino," he explained. "Right now, we are finding it is a benefit to us not to have a casino. Going to a place without a casino is an advantage" when getting corporations to approve the expenditure.
The small size of the casino was just not enough to get anybody too excited about gambling there, McDaniel surmises. A dearth of business, along with the New York-based Loews' lack of a gaming license, contributed to the chain's decision to keep the casino closed.
There was an upside for McDaniel, though: "It turned into a great meeting space."
A GOLF RESORT
Meeting space is coveted at the resort. Group business is the primary target market for the 493-room property, according to Tisch. Loews Lake Las Vegas now has 45,000 square feet of meeting space. The hotelier envisions a golf resort, á la Scottsdale, Palm Springs and Tucson. "We are not competing with downtown," he pointed out, nor with Strip resorts.
The decision to purchase the Hyatt Lake Las Vegas came long after Loews first eyed building a resort in the 4,000-acre Henderson community. "We have been looking at Lake Las Vegas for 10 years," Tisch recalled, "and we looked at a variety of different opportunities."
Loews first announced plans to build a $200 million, 400-room hotel in Lake Las Vegas in 2005. The Hyatt acquisition took the place of that.
The company is entering a market where upscale competitors include the J.W. Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa, in Summerlin, Green Valley Ranch Station, Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa and the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas (across the street from Loews).
The new Loews product can hold its own, McDaniel maintained. "We are a great golf resort for people who don't want to be on the Strip - like Scottsdale, exactly."
Added Tisch, "we have all the amenities, golf and tennis, but you can go (to the Strip) to see a show."
EXPANDING THE MARKET
The Las Vegas market is not to be ignored, either, Tisch acknowledges. "We see a great opportunity to market to greater Las Vegas," he elaborated. "You see (growth) in areas of Henderson and Green Valley that, 10 years ago, weren't that expansive. And as Lake Las Vegas gets more built up, it won't be that far fetched that somebody would come out here for dinner."
A number of physical changes are being made in the changeover to Loews Lake Las Vegas. Flat-screen TVs will be added to every guest room. The hotel lobby will be upgraded and 13 suites have been renovated. The corridors were redone and the sushi restaurant was renamed Marssa. It was previously called Japengo, a Hyatt brand. The 400-plus hotel employees have also received training in the ways of Loews.
Tisch says more changes could be made. The ultimate fate of the former Casino Baraka is still being debated.
But the company chairman is bullish on the move into the Las Vegas market. The Loews' name, while not as well-known as Hyatt's locally, will help the property's national appeal, Tisch says. "Hyatt was a very well-respected brand, but at Loews we take the brand up a notch." |
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