The Fontainebleau is Already Floundering (and it hasn’t even opened yet)

 

 

Hey, Fontainebleau management: Is *this* really the way to attract Las Vegas locals to your “grand opening” (tomorrow)?

From the Fontainebleau PR flacks:

1. only one primary entrance will be open to foot traffic.

2. the parking garage will be closed.

3. there will be no rideshare services on property

4. Las Vegas Blvd. will be closed off.

Nice job!

Here’s the official “press release” from Fontainebleau. Can you think of anything that screams STAY AWAY! more than this?

 

 

The dismal track record of this urban blight speaks for itself.

Fact: The Fontainebleau has been the most colossal disaster in Las Vegas history. The construction site has looked like a junkyard for 17 years, destroying nearby small business, and making everything around it look like an eyesore. Meanwhile, many flipper investors got rich. Scavenger capitalism and deregulation works — for them.  Carl Icahn and his Wall Street investors bought and flipped the blue Titanic and waltzed away $375 million (for doing nothing). Meanwhile, the small businessman who owns the little restaurant across the street has been choking on construction dust for two decades.

Now that they’re finally opening, PR is non-existent. There’s been zero outreach to locals. No incentives or specials are offered. No enticements on dining and hotel. Oh, but the website is trying to sell $400-a-night rooms. In mid-December! What blind arrogance.

Moreover, there’s no public face for the company nor the property, no identity at all, aside from empty suits and nervous financiers who know nothing about the casino business. Oh, and good luck with all the “Miami South Beach” theme, with what looks like an insurance company tower plunked down in the middle of a ghetto they’ve largely perpetuated with dormant steel hulls and cement pillars.

I was willing to forget the past and wish Fontainebleau success, and many people will want the resort to succeed. But based on what I’ve seen on the eve of their grand opening, the Fontainebleau’s embarrassing mismanagement and tone-deafness continues.

With nearly two decades to prepare for their big day, you’d think they’d have the doors and parking situation fixed and ready by now. But — no.

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Note: Recall the Revel Casino (Atlantic City) disaster. The Fontainebleau even looks like the old Revel.