Third and last in a series.
Had he hung up his hard hat following the resounding success of the Mirage, casino construction superintendent Mike Smith’s reputation for getting big resort projects completed on time would have been secure. But in some ways, he was just getting started.
All he had to do was keep up with gaming industry impresario Steve Wynn, who by the early 1990s was at the height of his game on the Las Vegas Strip and had become the face of casino culture. The October 1993 completion of Treasure Island, with its Battle of Buccaneer Bay featuring the synchronized sinking of the HMS Britannia by a band of dead-eyed pirates aboard the Hispaniola, provided unique challenges and remains a particular point of pride for Smith and the design-and-build contractor he served, Marnell Corrao.
Built at the height of the family-friendly marketing era of Las Vegas, in addition to harkening to the Robert Louis Stevenson tale, Treasure Island paid homage to Walt Disney and the “Pirates of the Caribbean.” In keeping with Las Vegas tradition, at Treasure Island, the pirates always came out on top.
At 2,900 rooms and a $430 million price tag, Treasure Island was no Mirage, but its flamboyant, $33 million, manmade lagoon, tall-ship technical challenges, and relatively small construction footprint provided its construction superintendent plenty of headaches, especially given Wynn’s propensity for making changes in real time.
Smith can laugh about it now, as he explains the painstaking process of adding to the electrical wiring needed to control the special effects of lights and cannon fire and making sure it remained secure as the replica tall ship “sailed” with the assistance of a submerged track. The effect couldn’t just work once, but had to be reliable night after night.
In addition to bringing the job in on a 21-month construction schedule, there was the cramped working environment. As Smith told a reporter in 1993, “Logistically, Treasure Island is a lot more difficult than the Mirage. At the Mirage, we had 87 acres of lay-down space, but we have only 17 acres total for the Treasure Island, making it tight, to say the least. We’re treating it like a downtown project. Fortunately, I have four of our premier superintendents working under me.”
The company’s Atlandia Design subsidiary, led by Wynn’s younger brother Kenny Wynn, created mock-up models for everything from rooms to its famous pirate lagoon. After the design effort arrived at the desired look, the models were then made into working architectural drawings essential on the construction site. Although models were cheaper than building, only to make full-scale style and structural changes, Smith recalls the many models eating up valuable time during the building process.
Smith had been to his share of boardrooms, but recalls having particularly effective meetings at Sonny’s Saloon, a crossroads bar near the Strip frequented by an eclectic crowd that included casino employees and construction workers.
The opening of Treasure Island was another smash hit for Wynn and naturally, the question was asked whether the casino showman could top himself. The result was the $1.6 billion, 36-story, 3,005-room Bellagio. Opening in October 1998, the property was not only the most expensive casino-resort ever built to that point, but its construction erased the venerable and often controversial 1950s’-era Dunes Hotel and Casino.
“I don’t like to pat myself on the back, but I took a lot of pride in those jobs,” Smith says. “We knew Bellagio was going to be a classy place. Steve does have an eye for an upgrade.”
Smith recalls a long list of fiercely reliable subcontractors and fellow superintendents with whom he remained friends, even as they were sometimes competitors. The result of that team effort is etched in the history of the Strip and beyond.
When Wynn Resorts expanded its brand to Macau, Smith came out of retirement to consult on the construction in the early 2000s. Smith and his wife Karren moved to Macau during construction and took advantage of the opportunity to travel through much of Asia. The September 2006 opening of Wynn Macau marked a turning point for the company that would have turbulent and controversial times in its future, but at that moment, it had expanded its footprint internationally and reaped the benefits of a booming Asian casino market that would quickly eclipse Las Vegas for gross gaming revenues.
Although they laughingly acknowledge that they know the way from Reno to the California wine country, these days the Smiths travel less, but continue to contribute to the community’s cultural life.
As for Las Vegas today, Mike Smith acknowledges he doesn’t visit much anymore, especially since the closure of the Mirage and the many changes that have occurred at Treasure Island.
“It made me sick when they took the pirate show away and made it something else,” the man who helped build a generation of casinos on the Boulevard says with regret in his voice. “We rarely go back to Las Vegas. It’s gotten so big and crowded and I think it’s losing the class. It’s got some interesting things going on now, but not the class.”
