Las Vegas Approaching Bellwether Year Numbers

When reviewing historical Las Vegas visitation data, it’s clear that 2007 was the city’s best year by a wide margin.

The city set visitation records for the number of conventions hosted at 23,847, a 94 percent hotel occupancy rate among its 132,947 rooms, and an average 90.4 percent occupancy rate for all rooms, motels included, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).

Las Vegas also saw its second-highest number of convention delegates at 6.21 million in 2007, and the LVCVA also collected more than $219.71 million in room taxes, which was a record at the time.

McCarran International Airport handled a record 47.73 million passengers arriving or departing in 2007, and Clark County posted a record $10.87 billion in gaming revenues that year.

Then the Great Recession struck, many development projects ran into financing problems, stalled, and bankruptcies ensued. Among many projects abandoned during the recession were the Fontainebleau Las Vegas and Boyd Gaming’s Echelon Place projects, each valued at about $4 billion.

Many local housing and commercial housing developments also ground to a halt, and about 100,000 construction workers lost their jobs, among the 175,000 jobs lost statewide by 2010, Nevada Employment, Training and Rehabilitation Chief Economist Bill Anderson recently told the state Economic Forum in Carson City.

As the national and local economies gradually improved since 2010, Nevada has added 140,000 through last year, and Anderson says it should add another 30,000 this year.

Many abandoned developments in Las Vegas have been renewed with new owners. Most prominent among them is Genting Berhad’s Resorts World Las Vegas development on the former Echelon Place site on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip near Wynn Resorts.

The Las Vegas Convention Center is undergoing a $2.3 billion, 10-year expansion, Wynn Resorts plans a large water park and hotel development on the site of its current golf course, and the Fontainebleau reportedly will be sold by soon by investor Carl Icahn, who bought it out of bankruptcy for $150 million and anticipates getting about $650 million.

Many other developments also might get underway, such as a proposed $1.4 billion, 65,000-seat stadium with retractable roof that might host the NFL’s Oakland Raiders and UNLC Running Rebels football teams. And MGM Resorts International and Anschutz Entertainment Group in April opened the 20,000-seat T-Mobile Arena, which news reports indicate will be home to an NHL franchise that will compete as early as the 2017-8 hockey season.

The apparent success of T-Mobile Arena now has Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson considering building a 17,500-seat arena located about a block east of the Palazzo and Venetian resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, in addition to his support for a new football stadium.

The multitude of developments planned and underway are slated to debut more than $751 million in new hotel, casino, and amenities projects this year, nearly $2.01 billion next year, and $6.15 billion in 2018, according to the LVCVA.

Another $1.6 billion in projects are planned to debut in 2019 and beyond, and that does not include the construction of the $1 billion Faraday Future electric car plant being built in an industrial park in North Las Vegas.

Anderson said the many developments recently completed and those now underway are about to get underway have enabled Nevada to replace nearly all of the 175,000 jobs lost during the Great Recession, and it should surpass that total by about 100,000 more jobs with an average hourly wage topping $20 by the end of next year.

Of the 100,000 construction jobs Anderson estimates were lost during the Great Recession, he says about 50,000 should be replaced by 2018.

Enabling much of that economic development in Las Vegas and elsewhere is the relative economic boom now occurring on the Las Vegas Strip, with visitation numbers on pace to challenge the records established in 2007.

Last year, Las Vegas set a new visitation record of 42.31 million, generated a record $254.44 million in room tax revenues, and had a record traffic along the I-15 corridor connecting Southern Nevada and California, according to the LVCVA.

hest number of convention delegates at 6.21 million in 2007, and the LVCVA also collected more than $219.71 million in room taxes, which was a record at the time.

McCarran International Airport handled a record 47.73 million passengers arriving or departing in 2007, and Clark County posted a record $10.87 billion in gaming revenues that year.

Then the Great Recession struck, many development projects ran into financing problems, stalled, and bankruptcies ensued. Among many projects abandoned during the recession were the Fontainebleau Las Vegas and Boyd Gaming’s Echelon Place projects, each valued at about $4 billion.

Many local housing and commercial housing developments also ground to a halt, and about 100,000 construction workers lost their jobs, among the 175,000 jobs lost statewide by 2010, Nevada Employment, Training and Rehabilitation Chief Economist Bill Anderson recently told the state Economic Forum in Carson City.

As the national and local economies gradually improved since 2010, Nevada has added 140,000 through last year, and Anderson says it should add another 30,000 this year.

Many abandoned developments in Las Vegas have been renewed with new owners. Most prominent among them is Genting Berhad’s Resorts World Las Vegas development on the former Echelon Place site on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip near Wynn Resorts.

The Las Vegas Convention Center is undergoing a $2.3 billion, 10-year expansion, Wynn Resorts plans a large water park and hotel development on the site of its current golf course, and the Fontainebleau reportedly will be sold by soon by investor Carl Icahn, who bought it out of bankruptcy for $150 million and anticipates getting about $650 million.

Many other developments also might get underway, such as a proposed $1.4 billion, 65,000-seat stadium with retractable roof that might host the NFL’s Oakland Raiders and UNLC Running Rebels football teams. And MGM Resorts International and Anschutz Entertainment Group in April opened the 20,000-seat T-Mobile Arena, which news reports indicate will be home to an NHL franchise that will compete as early as the 2017-8 hockey season.

The apparent success of T-Mobile Arena now has Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson considering building a 17,500-seat arena located about a block east of the Palazzo and Venetian resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, in addition to his support for a new football stadium.

The multitude of developments planned and underway are slated to debut more than $751 million in new hotel, casino, and amenities projects this year, nearly $2.01 billion next year, and $6.15 billion in 2018, according to the LVCVA.

Another $1.6 billion in projects are planned to debut in 2019 and beyond, and that does not include the construction of the $1 billion Faraday Future electric car plant being built in an industrial park in North Las Vegas.

Anderson said the many developments recently completed and those now underway are about to get underway have enabled Nevada to replace nearly all of the 175,000 jobs lost during the Great Recession, and it should surpass that total by about 100,000 more jobs with an average hourly wage topping $20 by the end of next year.

Of the 100,000 construction jobs Anderson estimates were lost during the Great Recession, he says about 50,000 should be replaced by 2018.

Enabling much of that economic development in Las Vegas and elsewhere is the relative economic boom now occurring on the Las Vegas Strip, with visitation numbers on pace to challenge the records established in 2007.

Last year, Las Vegas set a new visitation record of 42.31 million, generated a record $254.44 million in room tax revenues, and had a record traffic along the I-15 corridor connecting Southern Nevada and California, according to the LVCVA.

The city’s 2015 inventory of 149,213 hotel rooms is down slightly from the 2013 record of 150,593, and hotels averaged an 89.8 percent occupancy rate. Clark County casinos took in some $9.62 billion in gaming revenues.

With more than 3,000 hotel rooms planned at Resorts World Las Vegas, the Fontainebleau potentially adding  about 3,800 rooms, Wynn Resorts looking to add a 1,000-room hotel, and other developments adding more rooms, in the near future, the LVCVA soon could be reporting record room inventories of around 160,000 hotel rooms in Las Vegas.

The city’s casino operators also are adding more events to draw more visitors who aren’t interested in gaming so much as having a good time while attending a unique event with friends and family.

A key goal is holding events that will attract more Millennial-age visitors in their 20s and 30s, such as concerts and sporting events. Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval and state gaming regulators also would like to make Las Vegas a global destination for eSporting events, which have a growing global following of more than 100 million and is growing rapidly in popularity.

With efforts to diversify its economy and become a more events- and attractions-based economy than in the past, Las Vegas is on pace to establish a new bellwether year and top 2007 as its best ever.

So long as it can maintain a hotel occupancy rate near 90 percent while adding thousands more rooms, the LVCVA should have more positive numbers to report in the near future.