On January 16th, 2009, casino operator Harrah's Entertainment said that it is delaying its plans to launch 665 new rooms at a 6th tower it has just constructed at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip until the demand for hotel rooms improved. The twenty-three Octavius Tower was topped off in October 2008 and scheduled to open to the public this summer as part of a one billion dollars expansion at the casino resort.
Harrah's Entertainment said that the other parts of the expansion will open as planned, including the 110,000 square feet of meeting facility, an improved pool and garden area and three 10,000 square feet luxury villas. Harrah's said that solid advance bookings justify finishing the new meeting area. Harrah's planned to finish the exterior of the building but leave the interior unfinished. It did not set a deadline for opening the new rooms but said that would be prepared to open to the public within a few months of whenever the demand for them improves.
Harrah's said that it did not anticipate any job layoffs at Caesars Palace as a result of the delay. Spokesperson Jacqueline Peterson decline to comment on how much it would cost Harrah's to finish the interior of the tower. Last week, at another casino project on the Las Vegas Strip, MGM Mirage Incorporated and Dubai World subsidiary Infinity World Development Corporation-partners in constructing the twenty-five floor, four hundred room Harmon Hotel and Spa and the rest of the City Center project-said that they would defer two hundred million dollars in cost by doing the same thing with that hotel.
They would also remove two hundred condominium units, blaming the changes to construction problems and the financial crisis. The world's biggest gaming organization by revenue, Harrah's owns or manages fifty casinos in 6 countries. It lost around $415.1 million for the first 9 months of 2008.
02/24/2009 19:35 PM
Ann Pettersson