Riviera purchase seen being OK'd despite short-term job losses

LAS VEGAS -- When the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors takes up the acquisition of the Riviera Hotel and Casino on Friday, it will do so with a board comprised of members who will have to consider killing jobs — and competition.

The board meets at 9 a.m. at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Most industry observers believe the proposal will be approved and that the only suspense will be in whether the vote is unanimous. Under consideration is the $182.5 million acquisition of the property and $8.5 million in acquisition-related expenses.

Of the 14 members of the board, eight are elected officials who often build their re-election campaigns on the the jobs they’ve helped produce in the community and bristle at the thought of big closures resulting in massive layoffs.

When the Riviera closes as expected sometime in the summer, more than 850 people will lose their jobs. The upside, however, is that building the $2.3 billion Las Vegas Global Business District that would rise in the Rivera’s place would produce 6,000 construction jobs and hundreds of permanent jobs in the next five to eight years.

“I think it’s good for the economy in the long run,” said tourism industry expert Patti Shock, a long-time professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas hotel management program and currently an instructor at the Las Vegas-based International School of Hospitality.

“We can bring in more conventions and have a competitive edge on our competitor cities. And, the international focus will make us a global powerhouse.”

Shock said that while jobs would be lost at the Riviera, they’re mostly low-paying jobs.

“I believe the industry can absorb them,” Shock said. “But many of the jobs that will be created with increased convention business will be higher paying jobs. Initially, there will be construction jobs. Then, electricians, Teamsters and many other trades will have increased employment.”

Seven board members are casino representatives that have the opportunity to get rid of a competitor with the vote, although many in the industry would argue that the Riviera’s competitive strength is lightweight at best.

Approval of the measure also would lead to the removal of another well-recognized Las Vegas brand.

The Riviera is two months away from the 60th anniversary of its opening and would become the latest in a list of resorts with storied pasts that have been imploded. The Dunes, the Hacienda, the Castaways, the Landmark, the Sands, the Aladdin, the El Rancho, the Frontier, the Desert Inn and the Stardust have experienced similar fates.

That series of implosions casts a spotlight on Las Vegas being a place where there are fewer opportunities to build on vacant land and companies instead must knock down a historic structure to make way for progress.

Collectively, the board is likely say they’re acting in the community’s best interests, bolstering Las Vegas’s stance as the leading trade-show host in the nation with its action. The authority can’t accommodate the requests it receives from shows that want to hold their events in Las Vegas. At least 20 major trade shows that have expressed interest in staging their events in Las Vegas couldn’t because the calendar was full and there wasn’t enough room to accommodate them.

Of the 14 board members, only one isn’t directly involved in the gaming industry or is an elected official — Kristin McMillan. The CEO of the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce serves on a committee exploring the development of a transportation hub for the Global Business District.

Casino executives serving on the board work for MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Las Vegas Sands Corp., Boyd Gaming Corporation and Mesquite’s Eureka Casino Hotel.

Elected board members include two members of the Clark County Commission or the city councils of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Mesquite and Boulder City.