Guitarist Santana moves some operations to Las Vegas

Who says businesses don’t want to move to Las Vegas?

Certainly not Carlos Santana.

The guitar god and rock legend announced Thursday through his management company that he has relocated from San Francisco to Las Vegas all of the operational functions for his music label and music publishing company, his Maria Maria restaurant chain, his line of signature music instruments and his Carlos by Carlos Santana brand of shoes, hats and purses.

It’s not a huge deal as far as economic development goes: Michael Vrionis, Santana’s manager, said the move could bring “several” new employees to Las Vegas.

But what the deal lacks in numbers, it more than makes up for in star power, one local observer said.

“Any time you get a high-profile individual, someone who’s been around as long as he has and is as popular as he is, to move to Las Vegas, it’s good press,” said Somer Hollingsworth, chief executive officer and president of the Nevada Development Authority, which helps companies relocate or open operations here, but wasn’t involved in Santana’s move. “The buzz goes around. Other people in Hollywood, in the music industry or in the arts might ask why he’s moving to Vegas. They start to research it and realize all of the positives of living here, and it starts a chain reaction.”

Vrionis said Santana decided to move to Las Vegas in 2009, after becoming the first resident artist at the rebuilt Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.

“He became enamored with the surroundings and the town,” Vrionis said.

Asked if the relocation had to do with reducing the companies’ tax burden by shifting operations from a state with an income tax to one without, Vrionis said the decision was “not a tax thing.”

“Nevada is a tax-friendly state, but several other states are tax-friendly, too,” he said. “He just fell in love with the city. Carlos is not an individual motivated by dollars and cents. He’s been doing what he does for over 40 years. From a financial standpoint, I don’t think it makes a difference where he lives. He wants to live where he likes.”

Santana, who plans another run of “Supernatural Santana: A Trip through the Hits” at the Hard Rock Hotel in April and May, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in early 2010 that his time working for Southern Nevada’s Three Square Food Bank convinced him to buy a home in Las Vegas and live here at least part time.

Santana and his fans donated $40,000 to Three Square in 2009.

“When I went to that humongous building full of food and people packing it, I got to see how we as humans are going to take care of each other in the future,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Doug Elfman. “What a revelation.”

Vrionis said Santana was also inspired by his personal friend, retired tennis great and native Las Vegan Andre Agassi, with his education foundation and college-preparatory school in Las Vegas’ urban core.

But Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Mike Weatherford also reported in September that Santana saw tax benefits — albeit altruistic ones — to leaving the Bay Area.

“It’s really expensive to live in the Bay Area. … The taxes that I pay a year just for breathing in California, it’s obscene. I’d rather give that money to poor people in Las Vegas and around the world (by) establishing full-time residency legally,” he said.

Moving to Nevada would enable him to help the Bay Area more “by having a say-so where my money goes, (rather) than just give it to them blindly and it goes to the war,” he added.

Santana is building out roughly 5,000 square feet of commercial space in southeast Las Vegas, about 10 minutes from McCarran International Airport. There, he’ll maintain a rehearsal studio and store 20,000 pounds of concert gear. The location appealed to Santana because it will allow quick access to air travel when it’s time to hit the road. He’s scheduled a six-week tour of Europe beginning in June.

Vrionis said Santana’s corporate headquarters would remain in California, because that’s where Vrionis is based, and he wants to retain the staff at his Universal Tone Management company. Vrionis didn’t rule out a headquarters move at some point in the future, though.

As the economy proves, Santana might also open new operations here, such as an outpost of his Maria Maria, an eatery chain with four stores in California and Texas, Vrionis said.

Clark County assessor records show one of Santana’s trusts closed on a home in The Ridges at Summerlin in June.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at
jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.