凯撒赌场希望火烈鸟地带项目将创造户外大 景点

凯撒赌场希望火烈鸟地带项目将创造户外大
景点

Caesars hopes Strip project creates outdoor magnet

凱撒娛樂集團公司日前公布耗資5億美元興建的Linq娛樂休閒項目的最新發展詳情。該集團表示，項目不單為維加斯帶來就業機會，而且會吸引更多遊客前來。

Linq項目是自Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas於12月開業以來首個在賭場大道的最新發展項目。 該娛樂休閒區會建於分隔紅鶴飯店（Flamingo）與皇宮酒店賭場（Imperial Palace）之間的私人街道上，正中建有一個高達550英呎的觀景摩天輪，比新加坡的摩天輪Singapore Flyer和倫敦眼（London Eye）還要高，其觀景艙吊船達28個，每次最多可接載40名乘客，每小時共接載大約2,240名乘客，每運轉一圈需時30分鐘，啟用日期應在2013年，每人每程收費少於20美元。 

Linq項目將創造大約1500個長期工作職位。佔地20萬平方英呎的露天市場將設有 30至40個零售、餐飲和娛樂景點，當中大約70%是餐廳和酒吧。發展商表示，多個餐館和零售企業都會是首度進駐維加斯。另外，建設工程會提升三個凱撒集團的物業，包括紅鶴飯店、皇宮酒店賭場和O�Shea�s。皇宮酒店賭場會隨發展項目改名，裝修和重新包裝，小型的O�Sheas賭場會關閉，由一個類似主題的酒吧取代。紅鶴飯店會建一新入口，連接賭場和Linq娛樂休閒區。該發展項目料於2013年6月開業。

For all that the Strip offers, it has not been able to boast a single, urban gathering spot, an outdoor space where a mass of people is, in itself, as exciting an experience as gambling, dining or shopping.

For that sense of open-air carnival, people have turned to Fremont Street — where entertainment is generally defined by a band stage, an overhead zip line and an animated, LED-encrusted canopy.

Caesars Entertainment hopes to change the landscape with Linq, a half-billion-dollar restaurant and entertainment district anchored by a 550-foot-tall observation wheel that will rise mid-Strip, across the street from the company’s flagship, Caesars Palace.

Company officials want it made clear that this is no pie-in-the-sky vision; it already has the money in hand to build the project, the most ambitious in Las Vegas since the pummeling of the recession, and says it will be open within two years.

The company hopes Linq, which will swallow a space around Imperial Palaceand O’Sheas, will create a buzz among younger, hipper visitors who party on a budget, providing them a place to hang out, see and be seen, free of the confines of a casino.

On Wednesday, Caesars Entertainment announced that O’Sheas, the low-budget leprechaun-themed casino famous for its beer pong, will forfeit its Strip-front real estate and become incorporated within the Imperial Palace. Imperial Palace in turn will receive a makeover of its casino floor, a new facade and new name, which wasn’t revealed.

Regional President Rick Mazer said Caesars will re-create an “O’Sheas-like” venue about 150 feet east of Las Vegas Boulevard, further into the Linq shopping district, that will act as a second entrance to Imperial Palace. He did not say whether the O’Sheas name would remain.

Among the details revealed Wednesday:

• The outdoor promenade, dubbed Linq as an homage to the sense of community developers hope it will create, will house 30 to 40 businesses — more bars and restaurants than shops and entertainment attractions. Paul Kurzawa, chief operating officer of Caruso Affiliated, the Los Angeles firm overseeing the promenade, said marketing teams are working to recruit as tenants national and international brands with no footholds in Las Vegas. He said a few are close to signing leases, but would not identify them.

• Caesars has raised the money it needs to build Linq, a good indicator that the project will actually move forward despite Las Vegas’ ongoing economic turmoil. “We have every penny ... sitting in the bank,” said Greg Miller, senior vice president of development.

• The don’t-call-it-a-Ferris-wheel observation wheel will be the first in the world with spherical cabins. Each of the 28 units will hold up to 40 people, and be available to rent for private parties, complete with food service and a bar cart. A single ride will cost $20.

The cabins will rotate both around the main wheel and individually to keep passengers level at all times. All will be equipped with 360-degree high-definition video screens.

Officially named the “High Roller,” the wheel will move slowly, 1 foot per second, and offer passengers a half-hour ride. When completed, it will be the tallest in the world, towering 100 feet higher than the London Eye.

Caesars designed Linq with a very specific customer in mind: an urban thirty-something who is looking for a place to meet friends, hang out and have fun. With the Strip saturated with hotel rooms and slot machines, gaming companies are increasingly looking at entertainment ventures as the most promising way to keep properties fresh and attract visitors.

Jan Jones, a Caesars senior vice president, said people’s biggest complaint about the Strip is its lack of natural gathering places. Past efforts at creating an urban square (think CityCenter) have disappointed.

“We’re giving customers what they told us they expect in the next version of Las Vegas,” Jones said. “It’s all about community.”

Construction of Linq will start in September, with an expected completion date of June 2013.

The Linq is what it’s called, and what it’ll be is an answer to the Fremont Street Experience but on the Strip.
Caesars Entertainment is investing $500 million into a sprawling non-gaming outdoor complex that will house bars, restaurants, shops, entertainment, with the centerpiece being a 550-foot tall observation wheel.
The closest streetscape gathering area would be Fremont downtown, or the space in front of Caesars, or even the marketplace between Harrah’s and Imperial Palace.
That marketplace will be taken over by the Linq, and Caesars promises it to be complete and ready by summer 2013.
Within the shopping area will be a new O’Sheas (the current one will close and merge with the to-be-renamed Imperial Palace).
As for the High Roller wheel, it’s modeled after the London Eye and will contain 28 units that can each hold 40 people.  The ride will last 30 minutes and will cost $20.
But is there room for two observation wheels in Las Vegas?
Across from Mandalay Bay, an amusement park has already broken ground, to include a 500-foot wheel with similar specs and is expected to open spring 2013.  It will also be surrounded by 11 acres of restaurants and retail.
Note that the London Eye is 443 feet high and is currently the tallest Ferris Wheel.  Las Vegas, of course, has to be bigger.
Perhaps the start of that project spurred on Caesars, which has been long planning their own outdoor project.
We wonder if Las Vegas will be able to support two outdoor streetscapes, much less with two giant wheels.  And we wonder if this might turn Las Vegas back to the kid-friendly years that we’ve wandered away from.  And could this be the start of the decline of gaming?  At least with Caesars, the complex will be surrounded by nearby casinos.  

Imperial Palace — not the Strip property, but the brand name — is losing its place on Las Vegas Boulevard as Caesars Entertainment launches a significant makeover of the mid-Strip with its $500 million Linq dining and entertainment complex.

Caesars officials have not come up with a replacement name or discussed why it was dropping the Imperial Palace name, which it has leased.

Caesars has leased the Imperial Palace name since acquiring the Asian-themed property in 2005. Imperial Palace was opened in 1979 by independent businessman Ralph Engelstad, who died in 2002.

Construction of the Linq, which will include up to 40 restaurants and bars as well as a 550-foot high observation wheel called High Roller, will begin next month, starting with refurbishing the exteriors of Caesars’ Imperial Palace andO’Sheas casinos. The entrance to the nearby Flamingo also will get a makeover.

The project is expected to be open by June 2013.

The O’Sheas brand won’t go away but will instead be incorporated into the Linq complex, which will connect to the Imperial Palace building.

The entertainment district, an outdoor streetscape similar in style and concept to The Grove in Los Angeles, will take shape along a corridor between O’Sheas andFlamingo on the east side of Las Vegas Boulevard.

Caesars executive Rick Mazer said the company hopes to minimize any disruption caused by construction. Mazer is president of the company’sHarrah’s Las Vegas, Flamingo, Imperial Palace, Bill’s and O’Sheas.

The Linq is expected to employ 3,000 construction workers and 15,000 permanent employees.