{"id":42010,"date":"2013-03-07T23:59:02","date_gmt":"2013-03-08T04:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=42010"},"modified":"2013-03-11T23:46:18","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T03:46:18","slug":"lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: MGM\u2019s Casino Ex-travaganza: have we seen this show before?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

When MGM Resorts International unveiled its flashy proto-proposal<\/a> for the CNE yesterday, the company\u2019s officials were eager to talk about the 10,000 new jobs the $3- to $4-billion project would create, as well as the cavernous underground parking lot, hotel, shopping complex, performance venues, five-star restos, and a new location for our scruffy old Midway. All of it (plus a casino) wedged onto the Exhibition grounds, with transit access thrown in as a pot sweetener.<\/p>\n

What they didn\u2019t mention, however, was that MGM \u2014 founded by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian<\/a> \u2014 has been down this road before, albeit on a grander scale, with the firm\u2019s gigantic and legally troubled mega-complex known as CityCenter Las Vegas<\/a>, considered to be the largest development project in U.S. history.<\/p>\n

Conceived in 2005 by MGM CEO Jim Murren, City Center would be a 66-acre, $5 billion complex of sleek hotels, casinos, luxury condo, shopping malls, and entertainment venues wrapped up in top-drawer architecture, internal pedestrian malls and pricy public art.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy Vegas standards, Murren’s vision for the scheme was outlandishly novel,\u201d wrote The Telegraph\u2019s Mick Brown<\/a> in a 2011 profile of Sin City. \u201cEschewing the fantastical and the garish, he envisioned a pedestrianised ‘urban centre\u2026’\u201d<\/p>\n

\"lasvegas-aria\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, City Center has become a millstone around MGM\u2019s neck. By the time it opened in 2009, the City Center\u2019s price-tag had ballooned to $8.5 billion. By that point, moreover, Las Vegas was in the midst of an existential crisis, with casinos closing, hotel rooms languishing empty and many of the big casino players dangerously over-leveraged with debt taken on to finance mega-projects in Macau.<\/p>\n

MGM\u2019s stock plunged, and some of the key investors in City Center, such as Dubai World, a state investment fund, saw the value of their MGM stock fall precipitously. According to a Nov. 21, 2012, report by Reuters, Dubai World bought its MGM holdings for over $83 per share and dumped them for less than $10.<\/p>\n

According to the Telegraph\u2019s account (linked above), the project almost pushed MGM into Chapter 11. \u201cLegal and financial advisors counselled Murren to, as he put it, ‘cut off the arm to save the patient’. Instead, he set about persuading MGM’s sundry banks to save the project. ‘A lot said no,’ he recalled. ‘In the end the vote came in at 50.43 per cent saying yes. Had any one of those banks said no, we would have filed for bankruptcy.’\u201d<\/p>\n

But City Center\u2019s problems didn\u2019t end with its financing crisis. Construction was halted mid-way through a proposed 46-storey Sir Norman Foster hotel, known as The Harmon, after inspectors found major structural flaws, prompting a legal battle between MGM and its builders. Associated Press reported on February 7 that MGM has asked a Nevada court to accelerate rulings over whether to demolish the structure and which party should shoulder the $500 million damage claim. The Las Vegas Sun reported last December that the lawsuit would be in court until next year.<\/p>\n

\"lasvegas-aria2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Early this year, the Las Vegas Weekly\u2019s Brock Radke<\/a> described the City Center project as \u201cmisguided\u201d and quoted Murren saying that MGM might begin selling off individual pieces and de-emphasizing the City Center brand. \u201cThree years in,\u201d according to the article, \u201cthe company seems ready to abandon it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his 2011 profile, The Telegraph\u2019s Mick Brown noted that \u201c[f]or Murren, City Center remains a vision of Vegas’s future, and a further confirmation of its position as a tourist, as opposed to a gambling destination. In keeping with a general trend in Las Vegas, nowadays more than half of MGM’s revenue comes from non\u2013gaming \u2013 the shows, the restaurants, the nightclubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Has MGM\u2019s grand plan worked? The company\u2019s attempt to sell a smaller scale complex in the core of Dublin didn\u2019t take. The stock price has languished since mid-2007. And MGM is still very much in the red.<\/p>\n

In mid-February, in fact, the company reported its results for the fourth quarter of 2012: a staggering $1.22 billion loss, on top of $540 million in accumulated losses for the first three quarters. As the Wall Street Journal <\/i>reported<\/a> last month, \u201cMGM has struggled to turn a profit amid charges related to its debt-reduction efforts and asset write-downs and other items.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of which raises the question: why would City Council and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. place a bet on a company with these sorts of problems?<\/p>\n

\"lasvegas-citycenter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

photos by MGM (top),\u00a0 Joanne Wan<\/a> (middle), Joel Exoth<\/a> (middle),<\/em> Kent Kanouse<\/a><\/em> (bottom)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When MGM Resorts International unveiled its flashy proto-proposal for the CNE yesterday, the company\u2019s officials were eager to talk about the 10,000 new jobs the $3- to $4-billion project would create, as well as the cavernous underground parking lot, hotel, shopping complex, performance venues, five-star restos, and a new location for our scruffy old Midway.Continue reading “LORINC: MGM\u2019s Casino Ex-travaganza: have we seen this show before?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":42022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,2,20,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-architecture","category-politics","category-urban-design","category-waterfront"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLORINC: MGM\u2019s Casino Ex-travaganza: have we seen this show before? - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: MGM\u2019s Casino Ex-travaganza: have we seen this show before? - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When MGM Resorts International unveiled its flashy proto-proposal for the CNE yesterday, the company\u2019s officials were eager to talk about the 10,000 new jobs the $3- to $4-billion project would create, as well as the cavernous underground parking lot, hotel, shopping complex, performance venues, five-star restos, and a new location for our scruffy old Midway.Continue reading "LORINC: MGM\u2019s Casino Ex-travaganza: have we seen this show before?"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-08T04:59:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-03-12T03:46:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/03\/MGM-casinoplans2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"349\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Lorinc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Lorinc\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/\",\"name\":\"LORINC: MGM\u2019s Casino Ex-travaganza: have we seen this show before? - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/03\/MGM-casinoplans2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-08T04:59:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-03-12T03:46:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/03\/MGM-casinoplans2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/03\/MGM-casinoplans2.jpg\",\"width\":620,\"height\":349},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"LORINC: MGM\u2019s Casino Ex-travaganza: have we seen this show before?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e\",\"name\":\"John Lorinc\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Lorinc\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/john\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"LORINC: MGM\u2019s Casino Ex-travaganza: have we seen this show before? - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"LORINC: MGM\u2019s Casino Ex-travaganza: have we seen this show before? - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"When MGM Resorts International unveiled its flashy proto-proposal for the CNE yesterday, the company\u2019s officials were eager to talk about the 10,000 new jobs the $3- to $4-billion project would create, as well as the cavernous underground parking lot, hotel, shopping complex, performance venues, five-star restos, and a new location for our scruffy old Midway.Continue reading \"LORINC: MGM\u2019s Casino Ex-travaganza: have we seen this show before?\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2013-03-08T04:59:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-03-12T03:46:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":620,"height":349,"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/03\/MGM-casinoplans2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Lorinc","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Lorinc","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/","name":"LORINC: MGM\u2019s Casino Ex-travaganza: have we seen this show before? - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/03\/MGM-casinoplans2.jpg","datePublished":"2013-03-08T04:59:02+00:00","dateModified":"2013-03-12T03:46:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/03\/MGM-casinoplans2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/03\/MGM-casinoplans2.jpg","width":620,"height":349},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/07\/lorinc-mgms-casino-ex-travaganza-have-we-seen-this-show-before\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"LORINC: MGM\u2019s Casino Ex-travaganza: have we seen this show before?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e","name":"John Lorinc","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"John Lorinc"},"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/john\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42010"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42086,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42010\/revisions\/42086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}