Viva, Las Vegas

Las Vegas is a city of contrasts: the gambling mecca that leads the nation in churches and Eagle Scouts, the city of found fortunes and lost weekends, the gangster-built town that hosts Jerry Lewis'telethon, the city where Howard Hughes lived in pathetic splendor.

These dichotomies extend to the city's retail world as well. Although it's the white-tigered, Wayne-Newtoned Vegas-as-Soundstage that draws our attention, much of the city's retail development is of the grocery and drugstore variety you might find in any growing urban area. Even in Vegas, convenient local stores can thrive amidst malls and big boxes.

But don't underestimate the tigers — or Mr. Newton, for that matter. Many of the new resorts currently under construction target $300-plus-per-night guests. The transition to a five-star resort area will bring an accompanying crop of luxury-oriented retail facilities, according to Las Vegas-based CB Commercial's George Connor, the company's first vice president of retail.

But it's the flash that pays the bills in Las Vegas these days, and it's the over-the-top elements of Vegas retail that draw big-dollar traffic, the same way that flash helped put a showplace in the middle of no place. Here are a few examples of the latest retail sensations Vegas has to offer.

Las Vegas seems like a brand name itself these days, but this new store reminds us what a killer brand really is and does. The retail prototype for the Atlanta-based soft-drink leviathan is an eyecatcher even by Vegas standards, with a 10-story version of its signature curved bottle as tower and landmark.

Inside, there are departments for each member of the family, with items ranging from plush polar bears to clothing and artwork. Other features include a turn-of-the-century soda fountain and a year-round Christmas display. The beverage theme, of course, reigns supreme: a replica delivery truck houses a videowall, fixtures look like coolers and six-packs and fitting rooms recall vending machines and the familiar bell-shaped Coke glass. The entire experience is calculated to turn even the most mild-mannered visitor into — sorry, we had to do it — a Coke fiend.

Design: Phase One Design Services Inc., Atlanta; The Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta; Ramon Luminance Design, Atlanta (lighting design)

Suppliers/Fabricators: Whiting Turner, Las Vegas (general contractor); Edwards Technologies, Los Angeles (audio/visuals); Raymond Group, Las Vegas (ceilings and drywall); Environments Inc., Minnetonka, Minn. (fixturing); Bay Area Design, San Francisco (special hangers and T-stands); Permagrain Products Inc., Newtown Square, Pa. (flooring); Halo Lighting, Elk Grove Village, Ill. (lighting); Wolf-Gordon Inc., Long Island City, N.Y. (wallcoverings); Yesco, Las Vegas (signage); Sign Xpress, Las Vegas (signage); Ad Art, Stockton, Calif. (signage); Colorchrome, Atlanta (graphics); Decter, Los Angeles (mannequins); Lexington, Sun Valley, Calif. (Santa Claus); Ultraglas, Los Angeles (glass arch); Joseph Farais Studio, Oakland, Calif. (metalwork); Optikinetics, Ashland, Va. (space frame)

Photography: Rick Barnes, Magic Lantern, Los Angeles

One of the newest W.H. Smith stores is in the latest example of Vegas over-the-top, the New York New York hotel. In keeping with the theme, the 8000-sq.-ft. book, souvenir and sundries store is called the SoHo Village Store. The store incorporates elements of the neighborhood that inspired it, including Big Apple-esque street lamps, brick wall facades, window boxes and a piano being moved “upstairs.” Mini-boutiques branch off a central courtyard, creating a set of “in-store storefronts” for that shopping street ambience.

Design: AM Partners Inc., Honolulu (architecture, interior design); Joe Kaplan Architectural Lighting, Los Angeles (lighting design)

Suppliers/Fabricators: Price Woods Inc., Mesa, Ariz. (general contractor); Appletree Design Works, Cincinnati (fixturing); Design Industries, Indianapolis (furniture); Lafayette, Brooklyn, N.Y. (furniture); Golden Oldies, Flushing, N.Y. (furniture); Amtico, Atlanta (flooring); Sunbrella, Ann Arbor, Mich. (fabric); Waverly, High Point, N.C. (fabric); Robert Allen Fabrics, Mansfield, Mass. (fabric); Peter Fasano, Barrington, Mass. (wall coverings)

Photography: Andrew Bordwin Photography, New York City

Continuing the illusion of New York New York, the hotel/casino includes a New York City-style steakhouse, designed by Arnold Syrop, whose resume includes the Big Apple's own Smith & Wallensky's. The restaurant captures the feel of the real thing, with pictures of celebs and sports stars on the walls, plank floors and dark wood paneling with wood-and-marble chair rails. Hanging lamps work with recessed lights to create an atmosphere that Peter Lugar himself might appreciate. The stakes may be high elsewhere in New York New York, but here, steaks are what the customers ask for.

Design: Arnold Syrop Associates, New York City; Kugler Tillotson Associates Inc., New York City (lighting design)

Suppliers/Fabricators: AM Trend, Anaheim, Calif. (furniture); Bronx Builders, Bronx, N.Y. (furniture); Chair Craft, Hickory, N.C. (furniture); Jasper Seating, Jasper, Ind. (furniture); Empire L&B Industries Inc., Yonkers, N.Y. (furniture); Ball & Ball, Exton, Pa. (lighting); City Knickerbocker, New York City (lighting); Manning Lighting, New York City (lighting); Urban Archeology, New York City (lighting); Robert Allen Fabric, New York City (fabric); S. Harris, Tulsa, Okla. (fabric); Frank Bella, Hicksville, N.Y. (fabric); Knoll International, East Greenville, Pa.; Upper Deck, New York City (decor); W. H. Bailey, New York City (decorative photos)

Photography: Paul Warchol, New York City

(First Place, 1997 ISP/VM SD International Store Interior Design Competition — Large-Format Specialty (Non-Discount) Store Over 30,000 Sq. Ft. for Both Hardlines and Softlines)

Even in the middle of the sybaritic shopping center that is the Forum Shops at Caesar's, the new FAO Schwarz will catch your eye — if not harness it. The 55,000-sq.-ft. store's entry is a three-story (45-ft.-tall) Trojan Horse, in keeping with the center's togas-and-columns ambience. The animatronic creation includes a bobbing head, smoking nostrils and flaring eyes, as well as retail space in the belly of the beast and themed mechanisms (such as a singing cow and a dinosaur clutching a Fay Wray-esque Barbie doll) that appear through trap doors in the horse's body.

Inside, sections are dedicated to Star Wars and Barbie, as well as a “Best of FAO” section for the high-rollers, where personal shoppers present the store's top-end products by appointment only. It's also the first FAO Schwarz location to include limited food service, with Star Wars and Monopoly beverage bars.

From initial design to its September 1997 opening, the new FAO Schwarz was four years in the making. Although the store sells toys, it's apparent that the only horsing around was at the door.

So if Vegas can bring us talking statues in the Forum Shops and pirate ships battling in the desert, why not stores where shoppers can travel into deep space or meet Marilyn Monroe or Clark Gable? Those options are available at MGM Grand's two new stores, Hollywood & Grand at the MGM Grand Casino and the MGM Grand Airport Store at McCarran International Airport.

Hollywood & Grand takes shoppers and scripted characters on a star-gazing adventure that includes a view of the Northern Lights, a meteor shower and a trip to the beginning of time. The adventure is interspersed with shopping opportunities, making for a choreographed retail/entertainment experience.

The MGM Grand Airport Store includes an innovative use of hologram technology. A special imaging system allows 3-D images to appear within a 9 1/2-foot glass column. The moving, talking images can be viewed from all angles without distortion. The airport store serves as a preview of the attractions to be found at the hotel store, as well as other units scheduled to open worldwide.

Design (Hollywood & Grand): C&J Partners, Pasadena, Calif.; MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas

Suppliers/Fabricators: Technifex Inc., Valencia, Calif. (audio/visuals); Retail Construction Services Inc., St. Paul, Minn. (ceilings); Woodmasters Design & Manufacturing, Addison, Ill. (fixturing); Harbinger, Atlanta (flooring); Atlas Carpet Mills Inc., City of Industry, Calif. (flooring); Innovative Marble & Tile, Hauppauge, N.Y. (flooring); The Applied Radiant Energy Corp., Forest, Va. (flooring); Walker & Zanger, Mt. Vernon, N.Y. (flooring); Lazarus Lighting Design, Burbank, Calif. (lighting, graphics); Illuminating Concepts, Farmington Hills, Mich. (lighting); Sunrise Sets, Burbank, Calif. (props/decoratives); Store, Matakovich & Wolfberg, S. El Monte, Calif. (electrical engineering)

Along the way at the Forum — it expanded. The Forum Shops at Caesars marked a “Grand Re-opening”in August 1997, cutting the ribbon on an additional 250,000-plus square feet of retail space. In addition to the new and world's largest FAO Schwarz store, the 35 new shops include a NikeTown, a Virgin Megastore, Polo, Hugo Boss, Fendi, Bath & Body, Emporio Armani, Guess Kids, Rampage and Wolfgang Puck's Chinois restaurant.

Of course, a key component to the Forum Shops'appeal is the larger-than-life quality of its Classical myth-driven theme. So how can you coexist, let alone compete with, the animatronic “Fountain of the Gods” that marks the original Forum Shops? Try a lost continent. The new section features “Atlantis,” which includes actors, animatronic figures and a 50,000-gallon aquarium stocked with rare and exotic fish. The architectural anchor for the addition is the “Roman Great Hall,” which is 160 feet in diameter and 85 feet high.

That's just that much more room for shoppers, 45,000 to 50,000 of whom visit the shops each day. And how they visit — the Forum Shops report annual sales of $1200 per square foot, a number the center expects to extend to the new section as well. Perhaps it's the Midas touch.

The Venetian casino/resort is a $2 billion “city within a city,” built on the former site of the Sands Hotel. The resort will include two 3,000-suite hotels, a pair of casinos, 15 restaurants and 150 high-end shops in an area called The Grand Canal Shoppes. Ultimately, the Venetian expects to draw 20 million restaurant and retail customers each year.

The Best in the West Power Center, noted for its gargantuan LED sign — the largest on the continent — continues to grow, adding a 40,000-sq.-ft. Copeland's Sports store and a pair of restaurants to its tenants, which include Best Buy, Borders, HomePlace, Old Navy and other stores and eateries.

As we've noted, Las Vegas is a larger-than-life kind of place, and really, nothing says overkill like a giant pyramid, which brings us to the Luxor. In keeping with the theme, the shops at the Luxor are known as the Giza Galleria, doing with Phaeronic Egypt what the Forum Shops do with Greek and Roman myth. Fountains, facades, friezes and colonnades mesh with palm trees and a faux night sky to build a fantasy of dynasties past. GameWorks Las Vegas

Although Las Vegas is believed to offer something for everyone, until recently there just wasn't anything available for the video-game enthusiast who wanted to practice rock climbing without leaving the “arcade.” Fortunately, GameWorks Las Vegas has met that need. The store features a 75-ft. rock climbing structure (the tallest freestanding one in the world) rigged with such high-tech niceties as wireless communication between the climber and the ground-level belayer, live video of climbers televised through the complex, sound effects triggered along the various routes and Web-accessible snapshots for climbers who make the summit.

Design: Sega Gameworks LLC, Universal City, Calif.; Cunningham Group, Marina del Rey, Calif. (project architecture); Jerde Architects, Venice, Calif. (concept architecture)

Suppliers/Fabricators: Soundelux, Orlando (audio/video); Bash, Orlando (lighting); Kaplan Lighting, Los Angeles (lighting); Scenery West, Burbank, Calif. (sets and props); SignTech, Seattle (signage); Aged Woods, York, Pa. (flooring); Custom Rock, Las Vegas (flooring); Lucas Studio, La Tuna Canyon, Calif. (graphics); Reform, Los Angeles (furniture); Martin Brattrud, Gardena, Calif. (furniture); Alu, New York City (fixturing); B&N Industries, San Carlos, Calif. (fixturing)

Photography: Eric Sardes, Los Angeles

(Honorable Mention, 1997 ISP/VM SD International Store Interior Design Competition — Large-Format Specialty Store)

Ahh, the humble M&M candy — a drop of chocolate in a hard candy coat, nature's perfect food. Why not enshrine it in Las Vegas? It worked for Elvis, why not for M&M's World on the Strip? The complex includes an interactive ride opening in the summer of 1998 and its retail focus, Ethel M's Chocolates (named for candy baron Forrest Mars'mother) is open on the first floor. In shades of cream and brown, the store is suitably opulent, with columnar fixtures and capitals creating an atmosphere as rich as the candy within. Cupids and life-size shots of classic film kisses abound, while “Love conquers all” is inscribed on the star-spangled ceiling. (That's probably true, but we suspect chocolate works nearly as well.)

Design (Ethel M's Chocolates): The Retail Group, Seattle; Cunningham Group, Solberg Lowe, Marina Del Rey, Calif. (project architects); Joe Kaplan Architectural Lighting, Los Angeles (lighting consultant); Landmark Entertainment Group, North Hollywood, Calif. (attraction design)

Photography: Courtesy of The Retail Group, Seattle