City Center Las Vegas Avoids Bankruptcy

We’re as excited for the completion of City Center as you are.

In fact, we’d bet that we’re more excited.  Do you have City Center’s live construction cam set up on your nightstand so you can monitor how much progress was made each day before you drift off to sleep?

No?

Well, we don’t either.  But we do check in from time to time.

It’s because the success of City Center plays a crucial role in Las Vegas’ economic future.  It’s given tens of thousands of people jobs, and promises to be a tremendous boon for the tourist industry, which – let’s face it – is a good thing for all of us.  So we were very relieved to hear that City Center has avoided bankruptcy, at least for now.

MGM Mirage originally unveiled its plans to develop City Center in 2004, when Las Vegas’ industry was booming.  Remember?

$14.5 billion in debt later, MGM Mirage’s investment partner, Dubai World, sued MGM for going over budget and forcing it to invest more than it had expected to.  MGM Mirage managed to raise more money for the project by selling stock, and even made payments on Dubai World’s behalf to continue construction.  Dubai World appreciated this gesture, and in exchange, withdrew its lawsuit and promised to keep on funding City Center.

Phew.

City Center is still set to open in early 2010.  We hear that it will feature a lot of expensive and important art.  Sounds good, but what we really want this Christmas is tickets to the Cirque du Soleil production, which will feature none other than … Elvis.  Impersonators, of course.

Or are they?