ML - Vegas Magazine

Vegas - 2015 - Issue 4 - Summer - Art of the City - J.K. Russ

Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.

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served as an operating partner in the venture capital firm Z Capital Partners. He also seems to be the right man for this job. "Because of density and stacking amenities, the building has a kinetic energy," he says. "It is the most exciting place to be on a Friday night. The coolness and personality of the Cosmopolitan resonate throughout the building. I know that if we can refine this asset, we can have a great business." Especially, he adds, after they "make the gaming f loor as cool and hip and inviting as the rest." For all its swagger, the Cosmopolitan has long fal- tered in an area where no Vegas hotel casino can ever afford to: Gambling revenue has always under- performed. For McBeath, who cut his teeth working with gaming maestro Steve Wynn (in 2010, Wynn gave Cosmo his seal of approval, save for issues with valet parking and check-in), bringing gaming up to speed is job one. "Cosmopolitan was never designed for big action, and Deutsche Bank did not have the risk tolerance for it," says McBeath, explaining that he is working on finishing four uncompleted f loors, loading t hem w it h Sky Villa – qua lit y high-roller suites, and pursuing big players who might have once viewed Cosmo as a bit bush league. "We are going to increase our footprint in a very competitive area." Ken Hoff, the Cosmopolitan's senior vice presi- dent of casino marketing (i.e., the guy working with McBeath to reel in those whales), could not be hap- pier with the new direction. "Our previous CEO was a hotelier," Hoff says. "Bill has the gaming background, and he's not averse to volatility. He understands the math of this business, knows that our numbers will come in, and doesn't worry about it." In the past, exec- utives in the pit "sweated games," he adds (industry jargon for watching customers closely out of concern that they'll win big). "Now we don't bother our players. You don't want to be known as a sweaty place." In a further bid to attract big action, the luxe high- limit Talon Club—where the action is as intoxicating as the Scotch selection, which features a rare bottle of 50 -year-old Balvenie—will be expanded, a space will be devoted to high-limit slots, and there is talk of mov ing t he spor t s book dow nst a irs, ma k ing it more accessible and turning it into a game-viewing destination. In an attempt to enhance the high-roller experience, a master butler from England has been brought in to tweak the way butlering is done, and a system is in place to welcome arriving players by name as they cross the threshold. "We're devoting a lot more for the [high-limit player] who wakes up at 4 am and decides that he needs something," says Pettigrew. "Those guys are impulsive because they can be. They're used to having teams taking care of everything." For McBeath, the payoff goes beyond running one of the hotter casinos in Vegas. In fact, simply presid- ing over another densely layered casino on the Strip was not necessarily an appealing prospect to him, he says. "I didn't want to be in a corporate environ- ment. Here there are just me and three other board members. There are no layers, and if you're going to work for a private-equity company, Blackstone is one of the largest and one of the best." In his quest to increase profits, McBeath vows that he won't lose sight of what makes the Cosmopolitan appealing in the first place: "Cosmopolitan's brand experience is luxury with an unpredictable twist. Staying true to that is important. Vegas, to quote my old boss Steve Wynn, is the world's longest-running party. It's cen- tral to the iconic Vegas experience, and being at the center of t he St r ip, w it h such a cool, hip, fest ive brand, is something that we need to celebrate." V Art of the MAtter Right from the start, one of the ways the Cosmopolitan differentiated itself was with compelling works of contemporary art. At the north end of the casino, leading out to the Strip, you can't miss artist Roark Gourley's giant shoe sculpture. It's such a selfe magnet that visitors climb right inside, and the Cosmopolitan has indulgently reinforced the shoe. nobody expects to see arrest- ingly graphic images covering a wall of a parking garage, but that was the objective when Chief Marketing Offcer Lisa Marchese commissioned Shepard Fairey to create a work of high-minded street art on Level B2. Says Marchese, "Shepard took dead space and turned it into an art experience." InsIde the lIbrAry of Rose. Rabbit.Lie., you'll fnd a Hieronymus Bosch triptych dominating one wall. Digital Kitchen has projected the painting on massive digital panels. If you look closely, you'll notice that the water is actually moving and the work has a three- dimensional aspect. lIke All cAsInos, the Cosmopolitan has video signs out front that market aspects of the property. But a point of differentia- tion arrives for three minutes every hour, when an art video replaces the pitches. The current work is Geisha Song by Laurie Simmons. p3 studIo's ArtIsts-in- residence shows (including The Bumbys, shown above) are curated by the Art Production Fund. The fshbowl-like third-foor space will have had 14 artists-in-residence by the end of 2015, producing work for and with the public through interactive workshops. Bill McBeath is tapped to replace Unwin as president and CEO of the Cosmopolitan. He says his early days with the property are like "drinking a glass of water out of a fre hydrant." The Blackstone Group enters into an agreement to purchase the Cosmopolitan for $1.73 billion—a steep discount from what the place cost to build. At the time, Unwin maintains that he looks forward to working with his new bosses. Jonathan Gray, an executive with Blackstone, estimates that "it could take a couple hundred million to get this place where it should be." Blackstone takes ownership on December 19, 2014. Taking a cue from feline totems found on Asian restaurant counters, the Cosmopolitan's chrome Lucky Cat stands nine feet tall. Created by Digital Kitchen, the Koons-like sculpture spits out tickets offering wishes for good fortune, plus room nights, gratis cocktails, and comped concerts. May 2014 December 2014 December 2014 photography courtesy of the cosmopolitan of las vegas (chandelier, the BumBys); By erik kaBik (ice rink); denise truscello (chapel)

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