Station Casinos Plans Another Las Vegas Property
Company Moving Northwest Of Town
LAS VEGAS -- Buoyed by its smash hit Green Valley Ranch, Station Casinos has announced plans to build another hotel-casino in the Las Vegas area, set to debut in 2005. The new property will be constructed in Summerlin, a bedroom community on the northwest side of town, not too far from the Suncoast and JW Marriott/Rampart hotel-casinos.
Station has been on an aggressive expansion schedule lately, building and acquiring hotels that focus on the local market. By not depending as heavily on the tourist economy, the chain was able to weather the post-Sept. 11 slump better than the companies with a heavy Strip presence. The current portfolio includes Palace Station on Sahara just west of the Strip, Boulder Station on the east side of town, Texas Station and Fiesta Rancho a couple of miles north and west of downtown Vegas, Sunset Station and Fiesta Henderson on the southeast side, Santa Fe Station on the far north side of the city, the new Green Valley Ranch in the southern part of town, and Wild Wild West, a small motel-casino just off the Strip on Tropicana. The new property will help to fill in the gap of Station products on the west side.
Although no details have been announced regarding the size or style of the new hotel, a press release indicated that it will be constructed on 73 acres of a huge new commercial development and will be designed by the same architect who did Green Valley Ranch. Other published reports have indicated that it will be larger, more expensive, and more upscale than that hotel, already considered to be the jewel in the Station Casinos crown.
Analysts expect Station to follow its very successful formula by creating a property with a few hundred rooms (tiny by Strip standards), a large casino dominated by slots and video poker, lots of restaurants, and a variety of entertainment offerings that could include anything from bowling alleys to movie theaters and more.
As long as we're talking about Station Casinos, I thought I'd mention a little story that really shows why Station has gotten such a good reputation around town. I received an e-mail from a reader who had some issues with her recent stay at a Station hotel. I didn't take it too seriously since my recent experiences with that same hotel were completely opposite, but she did bring up an important question about amenities. Specifically, she stated that the rooms no longer had coffee makers.
I forwarded her entire e-mail to a contact at Station who in turn forwarded it to the specific hotel and within a day I got a response. The bad news: no more coffee makers in any Station hotel rooms.
But the good news was the hotel executive contacted the person who sent me the e-mail, apologized about her not enjoying her stay (which had nothing to do with coffee makers), and offered her a free return visit any time she wanted.
I've stayed at virtually every major hotel in Las Vegas and you have to trust me when I tell you that personalized customer service like this is very, very rare.
This Week's Trivia
Q. The following hotels opened in July of their respective years. Which opened first? The International (now the Las Vegas Hilton), Stardust, Bonanza (replaced by MGM Grand/Bally's), The Landmark (torn down in 1995), or the Holiday (now Harrah's). ANSWER
The Weekly Trivia Question is sponsored by the Online Memorabilia Museum at Vegas4Visitors.com
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Rick Garman is the head writer for Vegas4Visitors
