First Casino Scheduled to Open on Macau's Cotai Strip Will Use GCA's Full Suite of Services

Jul. 16, 2007 - Amid tears and hugs, the New Frontier closed its doors for good at 12:01 a.m. today. "I hate to say bye but I must say bye," said Helen Madison, a casino porter for 34 years, with tears in her eyes. The hotel estimated that 3,000 people were on the property at 11 p.m. Sunday, an hour before it was to close. Approximately 1,000 continued to mingle at 12:01 a.m. today, when an alarm sounded signaling the end of the Frontier.

Las Vegas (AP) -- The real estate market may have cooled, but Donald Trump said he's not worried about his investment in a USD 1.3 billion condominium tower project just off the Las Vegas Strip. "There are projects that have been canceled, projects where weaker developments couldn't get financing, but that's to my advantage," Trump said Friday before a topping off ceremony at the first Trump International Hotel & Tower in Las Vegas. "I go around and buy land, I do things other people can't do."

The Elad Group, which owns New York’s Plaza Hotel, is expected to announce today a USD 5 billion project on the Las Vegas Strip, the Wall Street Journal reported. Elad plans to develop a site into a mixed-use development bearing the Plaza name by 2011, the Journal reported. The group bought the 13.9-hectare site, which currently houses the New Frontier Hotel & Casino, for USD 1.2 billion, the paper said.

Las Vegas (AP) -- Casino giant MGM Mirage Inc. said Friday that it has raised the estimated cost of its CityCenter project on the Las Vegas Strip to USD 7.4 billion because of an increase in the overall size of the development. "In a project of the magnitude and complexity of CityCenter, variances are to be expected," Terry Lanni, company chairman and chief executive, said in a statement explaining the increase from USD 7 billion.

Las Vegas (AP) -- Casino operator MGM Mirage said Thursday that it is buying several land parcels on the Las Vegas Strip for a total of USD 575 million. MGM is purchasing a 26-acre parcel from Gordon Gaming Corp. for about USD 444 million. It agreed to buy several parcels totaling approximately eight acres from Concord Wilshire Acquisitions for about USD 131 million in a separate transaction.

Casino operators believe they will have no problem filling hotel rooms with guests and packing casinos with free-spending gamblers during the current building boom, which is expected to bring at least four new resorts to the Strip and an estimated 45,000 more hotel rooms to the Las Vegas market by 2012. Finding enough employees to clean the rooms, work the restaurants and staff the casinos may not be as easy.