Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

I am curious who retains control over the property in these condo/hotel projects. If they sell the individual units, is there any provision that allows someone to rebuy the units in the future? I am still against these guys selling off prime strip frontage in a way that won't allow for future redevelopment in 25 years or more.

Posted by detroit1051

Hunter, thanks for the skyscrapercity link. Cosmo will look great and will fit in with CityCenter very well. I haven't been to Vegas since November when I stayed at Bellagio, so the photos show me the progress on both projects. It was amazing to stand at the edge of the roof of the parking deck and look at Cosmo's excavation. I've never seen anything like it.

Posted by mike_ch

Thanks. I was going to say the entrance at the ground floor looks like it was put together by a child with ADHD, but then I realized if it wasn't a little crazy looking I'd say it looked too much like an office tower.

I'll wait til we see more. I just hope they have second thoughts about those interior renders because with the entrance look and that inside appearance there almost seems to be a bit of an "earthquake survivor" theme. Heh.

I don't know. I guess its just me, but I don't go crazy over that modern look. I just like the more traditional look and feel. It will fit well with PCC, it looks just like it, but the whole thing looks like too much steel and concrete to me. I much prefer looking at trees and water.

I have to agree with you Brian. I'm not a fan of the modern design and I would have liked to have seen more landscaping. In my opinion, MGM was so focused on building a miniature metropolis, it didn't matter to them if the exterior was pleasing to the eye or not. I like Wynn's point of view - building from the inside out. Also, the poor people in the Bellagio Spa Tower. What will their packages be now? The "Partial Lake View" or "Cosmo Construction View?" Also, why I'm thinking about and this is question for anyone! Does anyone know of a computer program that allows you to construct your own hotel. The nerd in me thinks it would fun and interesting if several of us did this and compared our hotels and our ideas of what makes something worthy of five stars. Let me know!

Tom M -

I'm no real estate expert and am definitely not a lawyer, but a buyer of a hotel-condo unit gets title to it and has pretty much the same property rights as any condo owner. I seriously doubt the developer has any right to rebuy units once they've closed except on the open market. They've probably reserved the right to change their minds about what they are building and refund deposits prior to completion of construction.

Mike P.

Mike P,

I owned a Disney time share for a while and they based the ownership on a period of time, ie it was a leasehold for 50 years I think. Then ownership reverted back to Disney. Since many of these properties are "condo/hotels" I can envision something like this type of ownership rather than fee simple. With Condo's the master deed is a very important document and can dictate the types of ownership. Typically, in the real world, this is fee simple, but for the Vegas strip I thought that a more creative approach might be used.

Tom -

I don't know about Cosmo, but what MGM and its City Center subsidiaries are offering prospective owners is fee simple ownership with no expiration date and no provision for reversion of ownership once units are closed. That's my layman's interpretation of what I've read anyway.

Mike P.

Posted by detroit1051

"In Business Las Vegas" has some interesting construction facts on Cosmopolitan's excavation and underground parking garage:
"The five-story, underground parking garage drops 85 feet below ground.
Beneath that is an 8-foot-deep layer of concrete. And below that are 3,000 concrete-filled pipes that extend 100 feet further down."
http://inbusinesslasvegas.com/2007/07/13/feature1.html