While conventions won’t use the venue until February or March, the Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall could be completed in mid-December. The expansion, 95 percent finished, includes a 14,000 square foot outdoor terrace on the third floor which can accommodate 2,000.
“I think this is going to be a very popular place for post-event receptions and gatherings,” said Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “This time of night at the end of a show to be able to bring people here for a reception on a beautiful October afternoon is going to be pretty cool.”
The $980.3 million addition hoped to debut in time for the annual CES 2021 show in January. But that event will go virtual on account of the coronavirus pandemic, meaning shows on the books for February and March will be the first and then based on health and safety protocols, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“As long as the health situation will allow it, that’s when it will start,” Hill said. “There is still great demand for being here in Las Vegas as soon as it’s possible to do it. Once it’s possible, it’s going to be pretty full.”
Terry Miller, of Miller Project Management LLC, said the West Hall will have easy access, flexible space, easy load-in and load-out, high-end technology and branding opportunities in mind. The 600,000 square-foot main exhibit hall—large enough for three Boeing 747 jets—can handle four shows at one time.
There also are 41 loading docks to move materials in and out.
The south end includes meeting rooms on three floors, the atrium main entry, food service and the outdoor terrace. The 80 meeting rooms range from 700 to 18,000 square feet, most sub-dividable. .
In related news, the underground people mover designed to whisk attendees around a 200-acre campus is close to completion. The $52 million Convention Center Loop, which connects the 3.2 million square foot complex with the West Hall expansion. Visitors can travel between the two campuses in less than two minutes.
But Elon Musk wants to expand the system. Musk’s Boring Co. wants to add a 20 mile route. Boring submitted a special use permit application to the city and expects to do likewise with a land use/design review to Clark County. The application covers the first steps to construct the system, which if completed will include the Strip, downtown, Allegiant Stadium, and, maybe, McCarran International Airport.
“They are hopeful to have the approvals by the end of the year, with construction beginning in the first quarter,” Steve Hill told CDC Gaming Reports.
The Vegas Loop would be a first for a tourist destination, and could reduce traffic congestion throughout the corridor.
“It ties everybody’s parking garages together and, I hope, eliminates the need to build more parking garages,” Hill said.
Boring will finance the Vegas Loop development and construction through fares paid by users of the system. The plan will connect nearly 50 different locations along the Strip and in downtown, as well as several off-Strip properties to the west.
The properties have all signed land-use applications with Boring Co. If a resort wants a station for the people mover system, it would have to pay for the construction.
McCarran International Airport is still in the conceptual phase, Hill said.
Taking transportation underground not only solves traffic congestion above but would be weatherproof and noise free, Musk said.
“We are very excited about the future of Loop transportation in Las Vegas and are grateful for the enthusiasm shown by Clark County, the city of Las Vegas, the LVCVA, the resorts, and attractions,” Vegas Loop President Steve Davis said in a statement.
Hill said Vegas Loop is being envisioned as a model for other cities.
The people mover part for Allegiant Stadium was expected to be on the October 15 agenda of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority. Boring will seek approval for a potential station. Plans call for an extension of the Loop from the convention center to the stadium with stops along the way at various resorts, said Clark County Director of Comprehensive Planning Nancy Amundsen.
“We don’t have a submittal as of yet for the alignment, although I believe we should within the next two weeks for an entire infrastructure project along the Strip,” Amundsen said.
The Clark County Commission would need to approve a franchise agreement, which would be followed by a land use agreement.
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Steve Hill, president and CEO of the LVCVA and chairman of the stadium authority, indicated the stadium stop could be open for the 2021 NFL season.
“Things would have to go really well in order to make that happen,” Hill said in June. “But that’s probably the earliest possible time that we could get a system really connected to the stadium.”
As the underground loops continue development, the Las Vegas Monorail Co. moved a little closer to resolution when U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Natalie Cox on October 13, approved a series of motions. The company owes money to about 49 creditors, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as part of its sales agreement with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which will buy the 3.9-mile electric transit system for as much as $24.12 million plus a $1.8 million nonrefundable earnest money deposit. The purchase speaks to securing control of the non-compete agreement that bars potential companies from the market on the east side of the Strip, like the Boring Co.
Monorail ridership peaked in 2007 with about seven million passengers a year, but the recession that followed force the company to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2010. After the bankruptcy, the monorail still faltered and potential expansion plans were scratched.
