If the goal is to bring tourists to Southern Nevada, this stadium fits the bill
Monday, Jan. 28, 2013
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s mission is to put heads in beds. It therefore should become an industry advocate for the proposed $800 million, 60,000-seat UNLV Now stadium — and direct room-tax money toward it.
The board of directors of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development met Thursday in Las Vegas. The issue: ViaWest, a computer data storage company founded in Colorado with operations in Las Vegas, is expanding with a new facility on Lone Mountain Road in North Las Vegas. The company requested tax incentives to offset the costs of the expansion.
A new contract ratification vote is scheduled for Sunday and Monday by Yellow-Checker-Star taxi drivers represented by the Industrial Technical Professional Employees union.
Job and population growth, lower unemployment, easing foreclosure numbers, a strengthening housing market and broad-based, consistent growth in taxable sales have led the state’s chief economist to conclude that Nevada has escaped the grip of the Great Recession.
The Governor’s Office of Economic Development on Thursday took a giant stride toward forming an institution in Las Vegas that is expected to become a global authority in developing and managing the world’s most precious resource: fresh water.
If you missed this week’s International Builders’ Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center, don’t worry. It will be back next year. And the year after. And the year after that. Representatives of the Washington-based National Association of Home Builders signed an unprecedented four-year commitment to Las Vegas, ensuring that the international trade show for the home-building industry will be here annually through 2016.
Old-school businesspeople may not understand Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh's methods. But the estimated 2,000 people attending Preview Las Vegas warmly received him when he offered details of his Downtown Project.
Las Vegas' business power brokers are gathered this morning for Preview Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce’s premier networking event, at UNLV. An estimated 2,000 people are in attendance — the largest number since 2008.
An intermodal transportation center at the Las Vegas Convention Center is in the works. Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President and CEO Rossi Ralenkotter is expected to share details about the project today at Preview Las Vegas.
A Las Vegas ad campaign unveiled in June got a second wind this week after a national publication called attention to the city’s bid to attract gay and lesbian travelers, a lucrative market.
Oversaturated with media and exhibitors, the convention could use a reboot
Monday, Jan. 21, 2013
Reporters' experiences illustrate one of the problems with CES — and one of the reasons some tech industry leaders have questioned the value of the city’s largest convention: It has gotten too big.
Most people who spend time playing slot machines have stories about the jackpot that got away. The symbols on the reels line up, then at the last second, one moves. Or the symbols line up but the necessary number of credits weren’t played — even though the player has been betting the maximum all day. Or the catch-all: There must have been some kind of glitch with the machine.
Las Vegas-based Zappos.com has again made Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 best places to work in the United States. The online shoe retailer ranked No. 31 on the Fortune list, down from its No. 11 ranking a year ago. Zappos has made the list the last five years, climbing as high as No. 6 in 2011.
Transportation experts say a 15-mile toll-road bypass around Boulder City would only be used by about 44 percent of the motorists using what eventually would become a piece of the proposed Interstate 11 between Hoover Dam and Henderson.
California-based Virgin America will become the sixth airline to offer nonstop flights to and from Las Vegas’ most popular air destination — Los Angeles International Airport — when it begins offering three daily flights in April.
Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman’s memoir about his life as a mob lawyer and his three terms as “happiest mayor in the universe” hits bookstores June 4.
Guns and ammunition are flying off the shelves in Las Vegas. The fear of heightened regulation has sent people streaming into valley gun stores for gear and training. But the rush on guns, while good for the local economy, could hurt the valley's image.
A Nevada business competition with a $100,000 prize moves into its next phase in the next six weeks, and contest organizers say they received more applications than they expected.
The Nevada Transportation Authority, which regulates limousines, buses and taxis operated outside Clark County, has agreed to conduct a statewide test of software to detect taxi long-hauling.
Forces have aligned against online gaming; don’t expect legalization of any kind
Monday, Jan. 14, 2013
It was clear as the “fiscal cliff” deadline closed in on federal lawmakers last month that there was no way an online poker bill would reach the floor of the Senate for a vote. It was a disappointing way to end the year for millions of poker players who believed there was a slim chance for Congress to act on legislation that most Nevadans believe is a no-brainer to legalize an activity that already occurs and could provide badly needed revenue for federal coffers.
A healthy jump in convention traffic boosted visitation in November and gave hope that Las Vegas can still break the elusive barrier of 40 million tourists for 2012. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said today that 3.1 million people visited Southern Nevada in November, bringing the 11-month total to 36.7 million. But December totals are traditionally weak, despite the annual arrival of the National Finals Rodeo. The LVCVA said visitor volume inched up by 2.5 percent for the month, thanks to a 16.7 percent increase in the number of conventioneers attending shows in the city.
MGM Resorts International is off to a flying start in 2013, filling all its hotel rooms for the International Consumer Electronics Show, anticipating a big burst of activity for the Year of the Snake and nailing down plans to put a half-billion dollars in improvements into its Las Vegas properties. And, on top of that, executives learned early Wednesday that they had cleared another hurdle in the process to build a second resort in the world’s most lucrative gaming market, Macau.
The arrival of the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show this week helped shatter a year-old record for the most taxis loaded in a single day at McCarran International Airport.
You probably don’t know much about 45-year-old Las Vegasdotcom. He’s an ordinary-looking guy, an insurance salesman, often confused with the Internet website that’s now selling rooms, show tickets and tours in Southern Nevada on behalf of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Cox Communications, the dominant cable television provider in Las Vegas, used the big stage of the International Consumer Electronics Show Monday to unveil its next-generation mobile app that will enable customers to transport video entertainment to their smartphones and tablets.
Las Vegas' largest annual convention, which attracts techies and celebrities from around the world, opens this week on and around the Strip. The International Consumer Electronics Show trade show floor opens its doors Tuesday, although several activities began Sunday. It is sponsored by the Washington-based Consumer Electronics Association, a 2,000-member organization that supports the $206 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry.
As the prospect of passage of federal legislation legalizing online poker play continues to dim, several states are looking to move independently to offer various forms of Internet gambling. But panelists in Sunday’s closing session of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States had cautionary advice for lawmakers.
A look ahead at the gatherings that keep Las Vegas’ business community alive
Monday, Jan. 7, 2013
Among the most significant this year will be the arrival of four relatively small conferences that could pay enormous dividends to Las Vegas if history repeats.
Water parks, observation wheels, train tracks, tourists and a stadium will be big
Monday, Jan. 7, 2013
It’s a clean slate. After a four-day New Year’s weekend, it’s time to dust off the old crystal ball to predict the top tourism business stories of the year.
Lawmakers from across the country are contemplating whether it’s worthwhile to move into a domain that’s been almost exclusively Nevada’s since 1949 — legalized sports wagering.
Experts say we should imitate Houston by attracting technology firms
Friday, Jan. 4, 2013
Las Vegas, hammered by the Great Recession much the way Houston was devastated by the oil bust after several boom years, can retain its position as the center of the gaming industry if the state’s policymakers invest in intellectual capital.
A Las Vegas company is testing a cloud-based vehicle monitoring system that could revolutionize transportation regulation and help solve one of the Nevada Taxicab Authority’s biggest problems: the illegal long-hauling of taxi passengers. Frias Transportation Infrastructure, a technology company operated by the managers of the Frias Transportation Group — which runs the largest group of taxicab companies in Clark County — has spent three years developing RideIntegrity, a computer hardware and software system.
Nailing down the biggest stories of 2012 wasn’t so easy last December
Monday, Dec. 24, 2012
In baseball, you have to be successful only one at-bat out of three to be considered for the Hall of Fame. If I were a professional baseball player, I would have had a pretty good year when predicting the top stories of 2012. Here’s my scorecard on those predictions.
When guests check in to a Disney Resort hotel in Orlando, they automatically get their suitcases delivered free from the airport. Bags Inc. negotiated the deal with the Orlando resorts to provide a value-added service to the thousands of families who attend Disney’s Magic Kingdom theme parks. Bags Inc. offers luggage delivery and remote check-in services at more than 200 hotels nationwide. Now, the Disney model has arrived in Las Vegas.
A small labor group at Allegiant Air has voted to join the airline division of the Teamsters union. The 21 flight dispatchers at the company voted 15-5 to approve representation by Teamsters Local 986 earlier this week, joining the airline’s pilot group, which voted to join that union in August.
Michael Barron sees them all the time on business trips: party people who start celebrating their arrival to Las Vegas before the plane touches down at McCarran International.
The Nevada Gaming Commission met in Las Vegas today to consider several licenses and a complaint against a Las Vegas sports book. MGM Resorts International requested a license to operate a private gaming salon at Bellagio.
On the coldest morning of the year, the operators of the Wet ‘n’ Wild water park began pouring concrete for the park’s wave pool, an attraction that is the subject of pool-naming contest. As the sun was rising, trucks delivered concrete for the 17,000-square-foot wave pool.
Brookings study gauges economic performance in regional metropolitan areas by ranking housing, employment and economic output
Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012
Metropolitan areas in the Intermountain West have recovered from the housing bust, but the unemployment rate is still a major concern for Las Vegas, an economic report issued today by Brookings Mountain West says. The third-quarter Mountain Monitor, published by Brookings, said house prices increased in all 10 western metropolitan areas it monitors between June and September for the first time since the Great Recession began.
Thirteen Bruce Scher’s Goodyear Tire and Automotive Service shops in Southern Nevada closed their doors today, putting 81 automotive technicians out of work.
At summit, expert makes the case for Las Vegas as an international business hub
Monday, Dec. 17, 2012
Dr. Robert Lang, of Brookings Mountain West at UNLV, made the case last week that as soon as the XpressWest high-speed rail line is operational, millions of Inland Empire business people will have better access to McCarran International Airport than to Los Angeles International.
Representatives of the Yellow-Checker-Star taxi group and the Industrial Technical Professional Employees union said they have extended contract negotiations through the end of January, averting a threatened strike that could have started at midnight Saturday.
It has been almost a year and a half since Gov. Brian Sandoval signed legislation that authorized a $10 million catalyst fund to be used to attract new companies to Nevada or help existing businesses expand.
The Governor’s Office of Economic Development considered several tax abatement and deferrals today for companies that want to relocate to or expand in Nevada. One of the requests was from a Clark County business.
F Street, a short street connecting the historic west side of Las Vegas with downtown that closed in 2009 when the Spaghetti Bowl freeway interchange was upgraded, will reopen in late 2014 under a timeline reviewed today by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada.