Billionaires’ Vegas Plans Intersect
On one corner of the Las Vegas Strip, Steve Wynn runs his signature $2.7-billion mega-resort and busily plans another.
Across the street, Sheldon Adelson is building the Palazzo hotel-casino next to his successful Venetian. Soon to be shimmering near both properties are Donald Trump’s gold-glass hotel-condo towers, and Phil Ruffin has ambitious plans for the aging New Frontier casino.
Four billionaire-sized egos, a slew of big-budget projects and all within stone’s throw of one another. Is this desert sandbox big enough to hold them? Can the tycoons coexist harmoniously as neighbors?
“It will make for interesting copy and interesting reality,” said Jack Wishna, a local deal maker who knows all four men and has a minority interest in Trump’s Vegas development.
Once their projects are finished, the four will have invested about $10 billion in their slices of the Strip. In a city known for its commercial combat, posturing and bravado, the fight for tourist dollars could be epic.
To some extent, it has already begun. Three of the four are seasoned at slinging slights. There’s more than a little bad blood here and a willingness to spill it, at least with cutting words. It’s not a good omen for neighborliness at the north end of Las Vegas Boulevard at Sands Avenue.
Wynn and Adelson are said to dislike each other vehemently.
Wynn, who pocketed $500 million when he sold his Mirage Resorts Inc. to MGM Grand in 2000, can’t get enough credit for reinventing the Strip with such mega-resorts as the Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio.
Adelson can’t take too many bows either, believing the business model he embraced with Las Vegas Sands Corp. -- making money off rooms and conventions versus gambling -- is what transformed Las Vegas.
Their feud took a nasty, very public turn last year when the pair found themselves trading barbs over the size of the Palazzo’s parking lot, among other things.
In an interview, Wynn declined to badmouth his rivals, saying he was interested in making profits, not headlines.
“Las Vegas prospers because of development, not in spite of it. Competition creates more business. It causes hotels to make more money and not less,” said Wynn, chairman and chief executive of Wynn Resorts.
When Trump married earlier this year, Wynn was at the wedding. When Wynn opened his newest gambling shrine in April, Trump attended the lavish festivities.
A few years ago, that would have been unimaginable as they brawled over their Atlantic City, N.J., casinos.
Wynn and Trump have enough in common to be friends. Each has a flair for promoting his brand and exploiting his famous persona.
True to form, the Donald will plant his name atop the towers that are expected to cost about $1 billion and be among the tallest on the Las Vegas skyline. A message left for the real estate mogul-TV host wasn’t returned.
“One of the things that people in the casino business have done is use their personalities,” said Hal Rothman, Las Vegas historian and author. “People don’t build enormous casinos without egos to match them.”
The wild card in the fray is Ruffin, an unassuming Kansas native.
Ruffin has been quietly sitting back while watching his corner of Sin City soar in value. He partnered with Trump International Hotel & Tower to build the condos at the back of his Strip property, but has so far opted to go it alone with the New Frontier.
Don’t underestimate the Wichita businessman who made his fortune in real estate. He might not get the same publicity as his rivals but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to climb a few notches on Forbes magazine’s billionaire list.
