The new CEO of Resorts World Las Vegas touted the future of the north end of the Strip and suggested ways the city can be more successful. Two of those are luring untapped visitors from South Asia, and maintaining the Strip’s cultural relevance.
Alex Dixon made his comments to business and real estate executives as part of a wide-ranging discussion, “Strip Hospitality: What Makes a Winning Hand?” It was hosted by NAIOP Southern Nevada, the commercial real estate development association.
Dixon discussed everything from slots and improving transportation to future expansion at Resorts World and the start of his new job as a third-generation Las Vegan and Durango High School graduate.
“To come back and lead a property on the Las Vegas Strip is nothing short of amazing,” Dixon said. “I pinch myself every day when I walk into the building.”
Las Vegas has done a phenomenal job of understanding how a rising tide lifts all boats, Dixon said. The city worked together to get the $2 billion Allegiant Stadium built and bring in more tourists. The effort years ago in attracting the National Finals Rodeo in early December when there was a lull between Thanksgiving and New Year’s took a weakness and created a strength. Such efforts need to continue.
“What we need to do as individual properties to drive success is to continue to innovate and in many ways create new demand to help fill dates, so we can continue to have this rising tide,” Dixon said. “I’m a firm believer, whether it’s the north end of the Strip or Las Vegas broadly, that we need to make sure we’re continuing to innovate.”
Between India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, Dixon cited how there are two billion people and that the Asian-American Hotel Owners Association represents 1.3% of GDP in the United States by owning more than half of the hotel rooms.
“When you think of the CEOs of Microsoft, Nvidia, and (others), a tremendous amount of wealth is being created in Asia,” Dixon said. “With 160,000 hotel and all of the restaurants on the Strip, can we think of any Indian restaurants? In terms of our growth in Las Vegas, China was producing the largest amount of wealth by bringing people from the farmlands to the city. Macau didn’t exist and we in Las Vegas studied feng shui and understood Mandarin and Cantonese and what food people eat. We did all these things to develop physical assets, build a culture, and put together teams to go after a place in the world that was creating wealth and driving new populations. That needs to happen again and there are so many other different pockets.”
Las Vegas is the entertainment capital of the world, but it also needs to be the cultural entertainment capital of the world, Dixon said. The city can incentivize this new demand by doing what it has already done — starting as it did with two weeks of down time in December and tapping into a culture with which people are familiar.
“We said let’s bring cowboys to Las Vegas. So we developed a product as a city and made it a thing,” Dixon said. “For two weeks, we all put on our cowboy hats and celebrate cowboy culture. For a small period of time, we created compression for a subculture to be the dominant culture. I think as a community we need to say we help validate culture like no one else. If you made it on the Las Vegas Strip, that means you made it in the world. There’s a lot of demand coming out of South Asia that I think we need to tap into.”
As a way to move Las Vegas forward, Dixon highlighted the importance of transportation to bring more people to Las Vegas and move people within the resort corridor. He cited the need for subterranean transportation to get visitors from Harry Reid International Airport to the Strip, the widening of the I-15 to bring people from southern California on the weekends, and the completion of the high-speed rail from southern California.
The Boring Company tunnel system to connect the Las Vegas Convention Center and Strip hotels has led to Resorts World getting a station and Dixon is looking forward to the completion of the Vegas Loop.
“We’re hoping to get the Loop finished. Think of the goods, services, and people that can be moved once you have multiple connection points. It’s amazing technology and this needs to come online faster to get to that next plateau.”
Since it opened in June 2021, Resorts World has had its issues attracting visitors and generating revenue compared to other properties, but it continues to improve. Dixon said that his property is fortunate that the previous developer of the site, Boyd Gaming, had ingress and egress with multiple points of entry. The Strip has the density of hotel rooms that creates a lot of foot traffic, but the northern portion of Las Vegas Boulevard is defined by vehicles, he noted.
“We have to pick up that pedestrian foot traffic. That’s where the coordination with Clark County (is important), to make sure we’re moving forward with the pedestrian bridges to get people to and from. We have to continue to innovate and activate inside of our building. For a very long time when demand was outstripping supply, all you had to do was open your doors. We (as a city) were introducing new stuff and blowing it out.”
That’s why Dixon said it’s important to find pockets of opportunity to drive new demand.
“We have a beautiful property, but the reality in Las Vegas is that a lot of people have nice things and just having nice things doesn’t make you a winner. I don’t have a magic wand, but we’re going to make sure we’re moving forward and turning the page so we can welcome people here.”
Speaking to the business leaders in the room at the Orleans, Dixon said he needs their help in activating his property and that it’s important the Strip stays connected to the community. He mentioned that former Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval was recently named to the board of directors.
“Although we’re owned by Genting out of Malaysia, we’re very much a Las Vegas-based and Nevada-based company,” Dixon said. “I appreciate this room (of executives) helping us to continue to innovate the business and drive it. Success is going to be both collaboration and capital.”
Program moderator Deana Marcello, an executive vice president with Colliers, asked Dixon what type of growth he sees on the north end of the Strip. She mentioned that Circus Circus owner Phil Ruffin has put his nearby property on the market for $5 billion and asked Dixon if that sale would help the north Strip. MGM Resorts International sold the Circus Circus to Ruffin for $825 million in 2019 when Dixon was the property’s general manager.
“It’s still a little sore on the $825 (million) and $5 billion it’s on the market for,” Dixon said to the laughter of the audience. “I’m not going to comment on that front. We end up saying the north end of the Strip, but the reality is when you drive down, it’s we’re across the street from Wynn Las Vegas. Wynn and Encore are doing just fine.”
From Sphere to Resorts World, Fontainebleau to the Sahara, a significant amount of capital has been invested.
Dixon added, “It’s easy to otherize groups, but we as a community need $12 billion in capital to be successful.”
When thinking about it in that light, Dixon said Resorts World can help create further demand with its 40 acres of undeveloped land. The property has 3,500 rooms today, but has the ability to put 10,000 rooms on the site, he said.
“The amount of undeveloped space and new activation opportunities are amazing. Bet on us, bet on Resorts World, and bet on the north Strip, because over long periods of time, these infill opportunities on the Strip (or elsewhere) will help drive the growth.”
The conversation turned to gaming floors and slot machines. Dixon compared the casino to a high-school cafeteria where different groups of kids, based on their interests, race, or other factors, hang together. Gaming manufacturers are building sets for those tables, he noted.
“We can open the aperture of the types of themes that we have in our core products,” according to Dixon, who cited the importance of leveraging pop culture.
“A long time ago, I was at Goldman Sachs and we were advising Disney when they were acquiring Pixar. One of the things Disney did in acquiring that new content was put it into retail stores, theme parks, and restaurants, along with licensing. But we don’t necessarily do that in the gaming business on the slot floor or even in the gaming areas. To find new ways to make money, we need to take pop culture (intellectual property) and figure out how to get it onto the slot floor, so we’re part of that wave. When you have a big launch, it naturally comes here.”
The cycle to take a new concept and get it on the floor is too long, Dixon said.
While people have been talking about and focusing on igaming and sports betting over the last four years, Dixon is in his position today because an integrated resort is a function of real estate. Igaming isn’t.
“We’re here, so we have to figure out how people stay off the phone or if they’re on the phone, they come and physically meet someone,” Dixon said. “Our slot floors are one of the only places in American life where people from every range of the economic spectrum can come and be welcome. You don’t have to walk into a bank, get groceries, or walk into a lot of physical places to do a lot of things. But as long as Las Vegas is culturally relevant for people to come, whether it’s to convene at meetings or go to an actual slot floor, our best days are ahead. But if we stop innovating and are no longer culturally relevant on that floor, we have big problems, because with every ounce of casino comes a pound of real estate. We have to focus on that core. What keeps me up at night is driving that core gaming business in the physical nature.”
