Las Vegas Sands - History

History

Entrepreneur Sheldon Adelson and his partners bought the famous Sands Hotel in 1989. They opened the Sands Expo and Convention Center across from the hotel in 1990. The 1.2-million-square-foot center is currently the largest privately owned convention facility in the world.

In 1996, when the Sands Hotel was having trouble competing with the newer resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, Adelson imploded it to make room for The Venetian (Las Vegas). Construction of the Venetian began in 1997, when themed hotels were the fashion. Modeled on Venice, Italy, it joined Excalibur, New York-New York, Paris Las Vegas and other themed hotels on the Las Vegas Strip.

When the trend in Las Vegas then shifted to more understated and "elegant" hotels, construction on The Palazzo began in 2005. Together, the Palazzo, Venetian and Sands Expo make up the world’s largest integrated resort, with 7,100 all-suite rooms, 2.3 million square feet of convention and exhibition space, and an array of shopping, dining and entertainment options.

Adelson got his start through the trade show business. As early as the 1970s, he saw the potential in personal computers. He and his partners founded the computer trade show COMDEX in 1979. They then sold it in 1995 for more than $800 million. In 2004, Adelson took the Venetian’s parent company public: Las Vegas Sands Inc. became Las Vegas Sands Corp.

Perhaps because of his start in the tradeshow business, Adelson focused his hotel efforts on courting the convention and tradeshow industry. At the time, when other hotels were focusing on gambling, his approach was considered unorthodox: the traditional strategy was to keep hotel rooms minimal, so as to encourage guests to spend as much time as possible in the casino. Adelson, however, had all his hotel rooms made into luxury suites; he put in mini-bars and big screen televisions; and he created comfortable work spaces in every room. By doing all this, he counted on business from the Sands Expo and Convention Center to keep mid-week occupancy strong. This proved correct; the company now makes more money in Las Vegas from conventions than gambling. And Adelson's convention-centered approach is no longer considered unorthodox, but rather the paradigm in the hospitality industry in Las Vegas.

Adelson was also among the first to foresee the financial potential of Asia. Before his American competitors, he made the move to locate his company nearer to the Asian market. Macau, the former Portuguese colony turned over to China in late 1999, is the only place on mainland China where casino gambling is legal. Las Vegas Sands opened the Sands Macao in 2004.

Adelson next saw that 1 billion people are within a three-hour flight of Macau, and around 3 billion people are estimated to live within a five-hour flight. He realized that his company's future was in creating not one hotel, but establishing an entire strip---a Las Vegas-like Boulevard in Macau featuring many hotels of various styles and price ranges. But there were physical challenges to his idea: the total area of the small peninsula and two islands that make up Macao is less than 12 square miles; this area is densely populated; and, at the time, there was no land for such a large strip.

So Adelson created the land: he had his company fill the bay between the Coloane and Taipa islands. He called the area the Cotai Strip.

He then began construction of the largest inhabited building in the world---the Venetian Macao. To ensure the structure was stable, 13,500 steel piles were driven into the bedrock below. At peak times, 15,000 people were working on the construction site. Adelson set a three-year time limit for construction. This meant building needed to take place at a rapid pace, but the building was finished on time. The hotel officially opened at 7:18 p.m. on August 28, 2007---a time that was believed to have good feng shui.

The resort is twice the size of its Las Vegas counterpart, making it large enough to hold ninety Boeing 747 jumbo jets. The facility has an arena that will seat 15,000 people and one of the largest exhibition centers in Asia. The resort receives between 70,000 and 100,000 visitors each day and has a staff of approximately 12,000 on site. The 550,000-square-foot casino is also the largest in the world.

In 2008, Las Vegas Sands opened a Four Seasons hotel next to the Venetian Macao, as well as Paiza Mansions, which are “for invited guests only.” The company is also building resorts in Macau for a number of brands---The Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, and Sheraton Hotels---when they open on the Sands Cotai Central in the first quarter of 2012.

Despite its successes, Las Vegas Sands hit hard times in 2008 during the financial crises. At one a point the company was losing $1,000 per second. The stock price fell 97 percent within a 52-week period. To stop the bleeding, Adelson loaned the company $1billion of his own money.

He also continued with plans to build a $5.6 billion resort---Marina Bay Sands---in Singapore. Given the financial difficulties the company was facing, there was skepticism about the decision to build the Marina Bay Sands. However, Adelson argued that, with only one other competitor in Singapore, opening the resort would prove profitable. After it opened at the end of April, 2010, it posted a $600 million operating profit in the first eight months of business, a record in the industry.

The Marina Bay Sands has three 55-story sloping towers with approximately 2,600 rooms and suites. The most striking feature of the hotel is the Sands SkyPark, a park that is set on top of the three towers. The park has lush vegetation, an observation deck, several restaurants, and an infinity swimming pool that seems to flow over the building. The resort’s prime location right next to the city center allows it to serve as an entertainment site for the local population and also a destination for business travelers and MICE (Meetings, Incentive, Convention, Exhibition) events. A year after Marina Bay Sands opened, tourism to Singapore shot up 20% and the economy expanded by 15%.

Las Vegas Sands continues to look for new expansion opportunities. It is keeping an eye on countries such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan and Thailand. In the US, the company continues to expand its 2009 resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which opened in 2009 to compete with Atlantic City for some of the New York-area market. Las Vegas Sands has also talked about the possibility of a Florida resort.

In Europe, Adelson and his management team have been in discussions with governments in Madrid and Barcelona. Finally, in september 2012, Las Vegas Sands Corp. announced Madrid had been chosen as the destination for the gambling resort project dubbed "EuroVegas". It is expected to take about ten years to build six casinos, twelve hotels, a convention center, three golf courses, shopping centers, bars and restaurants.