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Sands Expansion Opens

LAS VEGAS -- The Venetian opened a $45 million expansion of its Sands Expo and Convention Center Thursday, increasing the megaresort's total meeting room area to 1.9 million square feet and boosting Las Vegas' convention role in the United States.

"Las Vegas now has three of the top 10 largest convention facilities in North America. The symbiotic relationship they have with one another gives us a huge competitive advantage against all other convention destinations," Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spokesman Rob Powers said.

The expanded Venetian convention area, with 10 percent more meeting space, will host nearly 350,000 attendees a year, including 100,000 attendees at newly signed conventions and trade shows, and add to hotel occupancy throughout Las Vegas.

"Our recent signings of several large-scale conventions and high-caliber corporate meetings reaffirms Las Vegas' prominence as one of the world's preferred trade show and convention destinations," said Eric Bello, vice president of sales for The Venetian.

With more than 9 million square feet of meeting space and convention facilities now available, Las Vegas has pulled ahead of New York and Toronto as North America's No. 1 convention destination.

"We're rightly recognized as having the most modern, functional meeting space of any destination anywhere," Powers said.

The shell for another 385,000 square feet, with an additional 20 percent increase in meeting space, also has been completed on top of the expanded center.

When that opens, possibly with the development of a planned Sands Las Vegas hotel-casino on the corner of Twain and the Strip, the Sands Expo and Convention Center will be the largest convention complex in the world, with more than 300 meeting rooms covering 2.2 million square feet.

Powers said the expansion plans illustrate the importance of convention business in driving development in Las Vegas and of development in Las Vegas driving its convention business.

Wall Street has been bullish on The Venetian's expansion projects.

The newly opened Sands convention space, coupled with The Venetian's new $250 million, 1,013-suite second tower, set to open later this year, should drive substantial added cash flow, generally defined as earnings before interest taxes, depreciation and amortization, Deutsche Bank analyst Andrew Zarnett said.

With the expansion, The Venetian will cut the average cost per room of the resort by an estimated 15 percent and increase cash flow in one fell swoop.

"(Sands Las Vegas Inc. owner) Sheldon (Adelson) gets to leverage the existing parts of the resort that were already in place before this expansion," Zarnett said. "The ability to draw incremental cash flow at a high margin will lead to a significant return on investment in the next 12 months."

The expanded Sands Expo is being marketed to event planners for its capacity to house their entire gathering at "one campus," Bello said.

That gives The Venetian a distinct competitive advantage to lure business to Las Vegas, Bello said.

Show managers can conduct a number of events such as trade shows, banquets, conferences and breakout sessions in a number of rooms at The Venetian that are not only close in proximity, but under the same roof as the headquarters hotel, Bello said.

With The Venetian's new tower, the hotel will offer more than 4,000 suites that will allow many companies to hold their entire national conference at one venue by housing all regional market representatives in one hotel, Bello said.

"Our one-campus philosophy allows us to attract many major programs to The Venetian and Sands Expo, and for that matter to Las Vegas as a whole," Bello said.

The Venetian recently signed meetings by General Motors (Sept. 7 to Sept. 11 with 4,000 attendees); ACDelco (Oct. 23 to Oct. 26 with 5,900 attendees; and DaimlerChrysler (Feb. 27 to March 2 with 5,000 attendees).

The Venetian also recently signed the National Hardware Show (with 50,000 attendees) which will move from Chicago to Las Vegas for 2004-05; The GlobalShop Conference and Expo (with more than 20,000 attendees) for 2004 and 2006; and The National Association of Television Program Executives (with 7,000 attendees) to a three-year deal beginning in 2004.

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