Midas touch: Landrys revamp refines the Golden Nugget

Sunbathers laze away the afternoon by the outdoor pool. Hungry customers stand two-deep in the buffet line. Men unmistakably ensconced in the 18-to-29 age demographic keep their heads in an owl-like perpetual swivel to take in all the women. Evening snapshots from the ultra-trendy Palms? Good guess, but wrong. This is the Golden Nugget, baby.

Before Strip megaresorts and before Steve Wynn, the Golden Nugget defined Las Vegas as much as any casino. Swaggering onto the scene in 1946, downtowns crown jewel was the Palms of its day, hip and happening, upscale but not snooty, a place to see and be seen.

Wynn elevated the hotels chic factor when he took control in 1973, refurbishing the rooms into arguably the citys finest, converting losses into profits and fashioning the place into a perpetual AAA Four-Diamond Award winner -- its been on the list since 1977.

Neither multiple owners -- Mirage Resorts, MGM Mirage, Tim Poster and Tom Breitling -- nor differing business plans -- Poster and Breitling sought high-rollers -- nor the Strips steady usurpation of downtown over the decades have dimmed Golden Nuggets luster.

But with a new owner behind the controls -- Landrys Restaurants, owner of the Golden Nugget Laughlin, bought the property for $295 million in September  --  gamings Gray Lady seems poised for a Wynn-like renaissance. The 1,907-room property is undergoing a $200 million revamp, its largest and most dramatic in two decades.

Also added: a snazzy porte-cochere with covered valet; a renovated lobby; a second high-limit slot salon with a lounge, private cashier and machines ranging from $25 to $500; a new VIP lounge; Vic & Anthonys Steakhouse; and Lillies Noodle House, serving traditional Cantonese and Szechuan food with pan-Asian flair.

Finishing touches by the summer will include a redesigned theater ballroom, an expanded fitness area, a spa, a salon and a pool with an aquarium design to allow guests to swim close to sharks and other marine life. The relocated buffet will overlook the new pool. Gaming additions will include a new poker room, updated sports book, renovated casino floor and new keno room.

Also open will be Grotto, a trattoria-style Italian restaurant just off the South Tower lobby. Next year will bring a new tower and 1,200-seat showroom, the final pieces of one of the boldest and priciest reinvestment projects in downtowns resort corridor on Fremont Street since 1986.

Hospitality empire

Landrys head Tilman Fertitta said its all money well spent.

The Nugget stands by itself, said Fertitta, Landrys chairman, president and CEO. We have a different customer base and price point [from the Strip properties]. Fifty-four percent of the people who come to Las Vegas visit downtown. This will be a chic place -- warm, with great restaurants -- and will have that old Vegas feel.

Landrys is a hospitality company, so a foray into gaming was natural, Fertitta said. Its corporate portfolio includes more than 300 restaurants (Landrys Seafood House, Joes Crab Shack and Rainforest Cafe among them) in 36 states and six countries; five hotels in Texas; the Galveston Island Convention Center; the Events Co., a Houston-based events firm; and the 40-acre Kemah Boardwalk, a development of shops, restaurants and amusement rides 20 miles south of downtown Houston.

Landrys is also the nations second-largest aquarium operator; its Downtown Aquarium in Houston even has a white tiger exhibit. The company recently acquired 80% of T-Rex (a restaurant concept that will re-create the environment in which dinosaurs existed) from Steve Schussler, who also the created the Rainforest Cafe concept. Landrys plans to open a T-Rex restaurant at Disney Worlds Downtown Disney in 2008.

Gaming was the only sector we werent in, Fertitta said. [We chose] the Golden Nugget because its a great brand. [We hope to use it] when gaming eventually comes to Texas. (Casino gambling is currently prohibited in the Lone Star State.)

Whether Landrys recent successes -- the largest bond offering ($850 million ) in U.S. casual dining restaurant history, in 2004; Fortune 1000 company in 2005; $1.5 billion in projected revenue this year -- bodes well for the Golden Nugget is anyones guess.

Fertitta is heartened by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodmans indefatigable promotion of downtown. Investors are starting to reap the billions sown into swanky lofts, new restaurants and the Las Vegas Premium Outlets shopping center. This is on top of cross-marketing possibilities with Landrys 50 million customers.

And if Fertitta struggles, he can hit up his cousins Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, proprietors of Station Casinos, for advice.

Theyve always been supportive of everything Ive done, he said.

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