VEGAS INC Magazine - Latest Las Vegas business news, features and commentaries about gaming, tourism, real estate and more
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/35634
EASY MONEY “We can make a ton of money with very little investment.” and is coming back to Tao at night. It’s the same for Marquee,” says Jason Strauss, co-owner and operator of the Tao Group. Tao Group recently opened its second pool party venue, Marquee at the Cosmopolitan. The $60 million venue is part pool club, part nightclub with 22,000 square feet of the 60,000-foot facility dedicated to daylife. Marquee dayclub has two main pools with eight additional private pools in the VIP cabanas. But if you think all pool parties are the same, you’re wrong. Like nightclubs, they cater to different clientele—like the Midwesterner who wants to tell her friends she partied next a Hilton sister or the high roller from Europe who wants his privacy. Or maybe they’re ravers from Southern California who want to listen to the thumping beats of house music DJs, which more and more pool parties seem to be catering to. “The whole brand of Marquee is really a house music-driven brand. We’re going to stick strictly to international, electronica DJs. At Tao Beach, we really segment both celebrity events and DJs. The programming brings a different demographic on each side,” Strauss says. Encore Beach Club is also going after that market, Bass says, bringing in big name DJs such as Kaskade, Steve Aoki and Afrojack, who all have a fan base as large as some of today’s top musical acts. “I think last year and this year as more venues open, you find that they’re really starting to identify what their niche is and what the programming for that niche is. You can’t be everything to everybody. | 4 JULY 2011 | We’re a house music-focused venue. We don’t do the reality TV star, socialite celebrity thing.” Bass says. But Angel Management Group, which runs Wet Republic, the Venus Pool Club at Caesars and the VIP operations for Rehab, thrives on it. This season, its Wet Republic pool club has hosted Kim Kardashian, Avril Lavigne and Hugh Hefner’s ex-fiancee Crystal Harris, along with slew of reality television personalities. “The celebrity aspect works really well for us. When a celebrity visits the venue, they end up on E!, MTV and TMZ and people realize how close they can get to these celebrities. They’re right in front of them, so the perception is like they’re partying with Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton,” says Omar Gutierrez, director of operations for Angel Management Group. Meanwhile, owners of Nikki Beach Club, which opened Memorial Day weekend at Tropicana, is going after a different market: the 30- to 40-year- old jet-setter crowd. The brand operates clubs in Miami, St. Tropez, Cabo San Lucas and is opening several luxury resorts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Nikki Beach co-owner Mike Penrod said you won’t hear DJs blasting thumping electronic dance music to the point of nausea or see a billboard for Kim Kardashian hosting her birthday at Nikki Beach, yet on the weekend of June 25, the club was advertising Britney Spears’ official after party for her concert at MGM Grand. Penrod said the vibe at Nikki Beach is more “discreet” but its new marketing seems to say otherwise. “We’re not for everyone. The people who want to go listen to the top DJ who’s cranking it at a dance party—that’s a little bit a younger clientele, that’s not us,” Penrod says. “In Vegas, it’s very popular to rent a celebrity for an event and market it. We actually do the opposite. We don’t tell you who’s coming; we tell you who was there.” Penrod says they’re pulling from their vast database of high-end clients and celebrities from their clubs and resorts around the world to market the Las Vegas venue. “Most of the people who come to our clubs around the world are a lot older. At these megaclubs in Vegas, people wait in lines and save up all their money all year to blow it in one day. We’ll have some of that, but most of our customers are CEOs or own companies,” Penrod says. “We aren’t going to be the most expensive in town, but we will be more mature. A lot of these companies in town are really great operators but our brand is very specific.” With casinos investing millions into building daylife venues and their patrons spending millions a season to match, it’s doubtful that the pool party trend is going anywhere anytime soon. It’s the next step in Las Vegas growing up and catering to its increasingly younger market. “Right now, you would never think of opening a casino without at least one major nightclub,” Bass says. “I think you’re going to see dayclubs continue to add to that requisite.” Even local hotels like Ravella at Lake Las Vegas are hopping on the trend but with a family-friendly twist. There’s a venue for everybody. Just add water. 21