World Market viewed as catalyst
Heather Hanley came to Las Vegas to look at furniture.
But she stayed downtown for the shark tank.
Hanley, an interior designer from Spokane, Wash., is staying at the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street while she attends a semiannual home furnishings show at the World Market Center.
The Golden Nugget, widely known as the swankiest hotel in a downtown market that tilts more toward low-budget tourists than expense-account-wielding businesspeople and big-spending whales, recently poured about $100 million into renovations that include a pool upgrade complete with a water slide that whisks people through a huge shark tank.
“I just thought it was kind of kitschy,” Hanley said, describing why she stayed downtown when most World Market Center host hotels are located on the Strip. “I like the old school Vegas feel.”
Hanley is exactly the type of business traveler Las Vegas leaders envisioned staying downtown when they touted the development of the World Market Center on a formerly vacant lot just a few blocks south and west from the Fremont Street Experience.
Whether there are enough people like her to justify $10 million in tax rebates the city of Las Vegas finance department estimates World Market Center will receive over 20 years remains to be seen.
So far just two downtown hotels — the Golden Nugget and the Four Queens — are among the 21 hotels identified as market hosts. Host status gets the hotels an advantage getting bookings from the estimated 50,000 people who attend the weeklong market and includes shuttle service to and from the event.
But the market provides other benefits in return for the tax rebates, according to its developers.
They cite the nongaming economic impact of $90 million during each of its semi-annual events and its contribution to 35,000 direct and indirect jobs once the project is completed in 2013. The market is also credited as catalyst for other development downtown, namely a proposed jewelry market and sports arena development.
“With World Market Center, it has been a huge catalyst for further downtown investment. Almost every developer that the Office of Business Development works with has cited the (World Market Center) as an important project that led to their decision to invest downtown,” said Las Vegas city spokeswoman Diana Paul.
World Market Center spokeswoman Dana Andrew said tax rebates helped the market pay for infrastructure improvements that made it possible to build a major project like the market downtown, as opposed to near the Strip.
“Recognizing that the city does not have the financial resources to invest in the necessary infrastructure, the developers of (World Market Center) agreed to make an upfront investment with their own capital to build the much needed utilities, roads, site work and public amenities to enable largescale development downtown,” Andrew said.
Four Queens owner Terry Caudill said he’d like to see more downtown hotels capitalizing on the World Market Center events. But he says the downtown hotels may need to upgrade their inventory to get more market business.
“They are only going to consider the hotels where the rooms have been renovated and are up to a current standard,” Caudill said of the market’s operators.
Market visitors booked from a 40-room block at the recently refurbished Four Queens, Caudill said. Golden Nugget officials did not return a call to say how many rooms they booked because of the market.
Caudill, who has a deal to buy Binion’s, another Fremont Street property, said World Market Center operators are leaning toward the Strip because that’s the home of the big-name, high-quality properties market visitors want to experience.
“They have to be comfortable that the room is something they can recommend to their customers,” Caudill said.
He added the opportunity to get more business travelers from the World Market Center or any convention business could be a boost for downtown, a market in which gambling revenue has been stagnant or in decline for more than a decade. That’s because convention guests not only spend more than tourists during their stays, they pay higher room rates.
Caudill said midweek business downtown is driven by tourists lured to Las Vegas through discount packages offered by third-party sources.
With conventions, “We can sell directly. We don’t have to discount our rooms,” he said.
Rob Stillwell, a spokesman for Boyd Gaming Corp., a company that has about 1,700 hotel rooms in three downtown hotels, said Boyd didn’t try to acquire host hotel status with the World Market Center.
Stillwell said Boyd properties, which include Main Street Station, Fremont and the California Hotel, cater to customers from within the company’s longtime target demographic, leisure travelers from Hawaii.
With Hawaiian customers taking the rooms, there isn’t much space left to guarantee space for convention visitors, Stillwell said.
“Offering big blocks is not something we are in a position to do,” he said.
Nevertheless, Stillwell said the Las Vegas Premium Outlets mall, the World Market Center and other developments on tap are slowly breathing more life back into downtown. It’s a phenomenon that can be overshadowed by the rapid changes on the Strip.
“I think what is hard for some people to see in Las Vegas is the progress downtown has made,” Stillwell said. “We are used to it happening on such a quick pace on the Strip.”
