LVA in the Media

Anthony Curtis weekly nationally syndicated column.

Jan. 6, 2010

With all the buzz accompanying the debut of the big CityCenter complex, the opening of a new tower right across the street has gone almost unnoticed. The 52-story PH Towers at Planet Hollywood opened just before the new year, adding 1,201 rooms to the Las Vegas mix. It’s a combination timeshare and hotel project, with nearly 1,000 of the rooms falling into the hotel category. The grand opening is this month, although you can book rooms now. The additional rooms increase the ever-growing count that in the last quarter has included 300 new rooms at Hard Rock, 500 at Golden Nugget, and 5,500 at CityCenter.

Four of Clubs: Four new nightclubs have opened in less than a month: Vanity at Hard Rock, Smokin’ Hot Aces at the Venetian, Haze at Aria, and Eve at Crystals. All are traditional house-music clubs, with the exception of Smokin’ Hot Aces, which features rock.

Lion is King: The Lion King broke its own Mandalay Bay box-office record with a gross of $1,314,161 over eight performances last week. TLK’s previous MBay record was a gross of $1,200,128 set the week ending July 26, 2009.

Peepshow on Hiatus: The topless revue at Planet Hollywood closed abruptly last week, but it’s not permanent. The show is scheduled to reopen March 1.

Pop Drop: Nevada registered a population decline of almost 28,000 residents between July 2008 and 2009. It was the first drop in 19 years of monthly record-keeping and may be the first decline since the 1920s, when Nevada showed a population loss for the decade between 1910 and 1920.

Question: The most distinctive of the CityCenter buildings are the leaning towers. What are they called?

Answer: Those are the Veer Towers, which both lean five degrees off vertical. Veer is made up of residential condos and is not yet open.