Vegas to See High-End, Larger Stores

LAS VEGAS-With the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino here about to undergo a $1.2 billion renovation and expansion, including the adding of 950 additional rooms, the planned new retail space is seen as a small piece of an intricate puzzle that is making up the new face of retail in the city’s gaming corridors. A joint venture of Morgans Hotel Group Co. of New York and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners are adding two new towers for extra rooms, and about 35,000 sf of new retail and restaurant space.

The venture declined to speak about the exact nature of the new retail expected for the casino. “We’re still in the planning stages,” says a spokeswoman. However, local retail expert John Restrepo, a principal of the consulting firm the Restrepo Group, tells GSR that he expects the new space will match the current trend of providing high-priced retail stores that appeal to young 20-somethings. “With a hotel like the Hard Rock, you’re going to see them going for the Gen-X or Gen-Y market, it’s not like the stores you’re going to see at the Venetian, which serves an older customer. I’m talking stores like Barney’s, Ben Siegel, Wet Seal, those types of stores.”

Restrepo says casino retail, which he considers “high-density, mixed-use urban entertainment” shopping, is undergoing a dramatic shift in price point and size. “The resort corridor is being transformed,” he says. “All these kinds of high-retail, the Prada’s, the Armani’s, the DKNY’s, are growing in prominence here due to the demand by the diverse tourist. It’s a function of the rising economic status of the tourist and convention markets.”