Hakkasan Group keeps making moves, and nobody can deny that. After a recent purchase of nightlife giant the Light Group, Hakkasan has shown they are out for success, not just remaining a company man. While Hakkasan offers five stories of debauchery in MGM Grand in Las Vegas, their latest club Omnia is inside Caesars Palace of all places.
Taking over where the former nightclub Pure existed, Omnia opened just over a week ago, noted by Justin Bieber’s 21st birthday celebration. While Omnia and Hakkasan both take up a similar amount of space, they are quite different in both décor and use of space.
Neil Moffitt, Hakkasan Group CEO, said in an interview, “When you look at design, it’s all a matter of conjecture and opinion, but I have felt it would be very difficult for us to eclipse our success at Hakkasan.” Moffitt added, “When we embarked on this project, one of the challenges was not how to compete with ourselves, but how to complement what we already have.”
Along with the overhaul, came a bit of debate as to whether or not the name “Pure” should be kept. While the name invoked plenty of positive thoughts, there was some negativity surrounding it, some of which stemmed from an IRS raid in 2008. In February of that year, agents investigated illegal “entry fee” sharing at the club, in which management simply kept some of the revenue, which wasn’t reported to the IRS.
“We did, definitely, consider keeping the name, but I felt at the time that this was going to be so different from what Pure was that we needed to name it something unique,” Moffitt said. “And for as many fantastic things that came with Pure at the right time, in ’04, ’05 and ’06, I felt there was also some negativity around the name, and I felt it was time to completely clear the decks.”
This isn’t the only operation the company will have in Caesars Palace either, as they will also open the Vista Lounge on May 15, which will replace the Shadow Bar. Moffitt has likened the nightclub experience to gaming, in the sense that with many players hopping from casino to casino to game, many club goers do the same for clubs.
“What we wanted to try to do is give the customer who comes to us a chance to see variety,” he said. “Anyone who thinks a customer comes to Las Vegas to see one nightclub and only that nightclub on a visit to Las Vegas is being ignorant. … I never wanted to see one as less than the other.”
