A big electronic sign lights up the Las Vegas block where the City Center sits, but the lights aren’t coming from there. They’re coming from one of two nearby towers that locals and tourists have watched going up while the economy was going down, glowing blue with big white letters and numbers counting down the days, hours, and minutes until “The Cosmopolitan Story Begins.”
The last multi-billion dollar casino to be built in Las Vegas before the economy crashed is about to open its doors to an uncertain but optimistic climate. The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas will officially open its doors for business in less than two weeks, December 15, just in time for what CEO John Unwin and the casino’s 5,000 employees hope will be a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, which cost $3.9 to build, occupies two towers on an 8.5 acre lot, with a 100,000 square-foot main casino room featuring 83 table games and 1,500 slots, as well as 3,000 guest resort rooms (a third of which won’t be available til July, 2011), It will also feature several retail stores and restaurants that are just finishing up getting permitted and ready for customers.
Unwin accepted a symbolic set of keys to the casino just last Friday night, December 3. To get their own keys to Cosmopolitan, people are paying upwards of $5,600 for a 3-day New Year’s Eve event with a concert by Jay-Z and Coldplay ringing in a, hopefully, prosperous 2011.
