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Given that I have talked to my friends and neighbors about it every day, it’s hard for me to believe that I have not made a single City Center update in the entire month of March … until today.

Since the future of Las Vegas arguably hinges on this property, the argument could be made that the project should have its very own website … updated hourly.

The pictures on this page were taken Friday, three days ago.    I made a special trip on this particular day solely to photograph the City Center.

Why?

I have to be honest with you, I thought we were looking down the barrel of an outright catastrophe.  I thought these would be the last pictures I would get of the project while it was still under construction.  At least for awhile.

You see, three days ago, City Center dodged the mother of all bullets.

They had 8 hours to obtain financing, or they could have been forced to declare bankruptcy … thus stopping construction of City Center for an indefinite period of time.  Six hours before the end of the business day, they came up with the cash.

Six hours!!!

That’s how close we are cutting it these days.  We are literally hanging on by the thinnest of threads in this town.  MGM/Mirage and Dubai World came up with $220 million by the end of Friday,  thus allowing construction to continue.

For how long?

Nobody knows.  That’s the problem.  Obviously this $220 million was merely a payment, and not the full balance due.  You can only dodge a bullet so many times until you are struck.  I can tell you this much, there is very real concern in this town right now that City Center is not going to open by the end of the year, as scheduled.

Even though the Aria hotel is already accepting reservations, legitimate questions exist as to whether or not they have a shot at being open.

This afternoon, I happened to meet a couple of journalists Downtown for a late lunch, and City Center was the primary topic of discussion.

Personally, I am confident that the property will open.  It’s 70% completed, and at this point, much like AIG … it’s simply too big to fail.  With Kirk Kerkorian as a major shareholder, we know for a fact that emergency cash is available in a worst case scenario.  He can throw his own money in there if things are getting tight.

My companions for the afternoon were a little more skeptical.

“Echelon was too big to fail too”, one said.

“If they don’t have the money, they don’t have the money”, said another.

A consensus was not reached, nor would it have mattered if it was.   A bunch of bloggers/journalists sitting around a Downtown eatery agreeing that City Center will survive is like three truckers sitting around a truck stop in Barstow coming to a consensus that AIDS will be eradicated from Africa.

It doesn’t mean anything.

The AIDS virii don’t say “Hey, three truckers off Interstate 15 agreed that we should leave, come on guys … let’s go.”

So, why do we sit around and speculate?  Because it prevents us from breaking down and acknowledging our own irrelevance.  Punditry is a form of self-delusion.  For the one hour we are discussing things, we feel relevant.  Sometimes, perception is everything.

One of the things I found most interesting was that the other people I was with had very different concerns than I did.

While I was primarily concerned with City Center not opening, most everyone else was concerned that it would open.  According to many in this town, that would actually be the more harmful of the two outcomes.

“If we are at 70% room occupancy now, what happens to the existing hotels when we bring thousands of more rooms online?”, one asked.

I have to admit that the arguments were compelling.  Perhaps missing a payment and stopping construction would not be the worst thing in the world.  It certainly would not bode well for our construction workers, or the thousands of employees scheduled to start work later this year.

Then again, how many people currently working their jobs would be laid off when room bookings dropped off a cliff as all of the newest visitors booked rooms at the City Center?

One thing is almost certain.  The MGM/Mirage of today will look nothing like the MGM/Mirage of a year from now.  They don’t have the money to keep City Center and everything else, so a major ownership change of The Las Vegas Strip is more or less a foregone conclusion.

This may sound like a lot of pointless hand-wringing, but it actually does effect me, and scores of people that I personally know.  As I drive through the town and observe the ever-increasing number of vacant storefronts and bank-owned “For Sale” signs, I become acutely aware that the fate of City Center may very well be the single most important event in the history of Las Vegas.  Ever.

The best scenario, the one that I am crossing my fingers for, is the one where people start pouring back into town.  It is a scenario where City Center and everyone else can all exist and thrive at the same time.

Is this foolish?  Is it unrealistic?

Yes.

Do we even deserve this best case scenario?

No.

Therein lies my own inner-conflict.  As long as 6:5 is still offered on The Strip, and service remains what it is,  tourists have no moral or ethical obligation to show us any mercy.    We’ve yet to give them a reason to.  Nothing’s changed.  At least not at the big corporate casinos.

It is my hometown, though, and it’s hard to root for your own ruin.

I wish that the corporate entities would apologize, correct what is wrong, and do what is right.  I think that is our best shot.

Sadly, nobody is listening.

Like everyone else in the nation, I am simply relegated to spectator status as this game of “If you build it, will they come?” plays out.

With that in mind, I present to you the current state of the MGM/Mirage City Center.

I can’t tell you what it will look like in 9 months, but I can show you what it looks like right now.  I’m fairly confident that we will re-visit the topic this time next month.

Until then, enjoy the images of what is.

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