Author: jeff

Among his first acts after being named president of the management company that oversees the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in August, Cliff Atkinson wanted to meet jointly with representatives from the 29 entities that operate businesses inside the off-Strip resort.

What might have first seemed like herding cats became a rally session as Atkinson, 49, jumped into a familiar role — ensuring the diverse companies overseeing the hotel, casino, restaurants, bars, lounges and retail inside Virgin were working in harmony to make the most of the huge business opportunity roughly three months away.

Virgin’s location along Harmon Avenue — less than 1 mile east of the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix headquarters — was an opportunity that wasn’t around when the property reopened in March 2021 following 20 months of renovations. The $500 million Grand Prix building was the centerpiece for the three days of racing, with high-priced grandstand seating, luxury suites, the start-finish line and pit row garages.

“We knew there were going to be 50,000 people. That was almost the size of Allegiant Stadium less than a mile from our front doors,” said Atkinson, who previously served as president of Luxor Hotel and Casino. “We needed to have the property ready for that event.”

Virgin’s rideshare lot at Harmon and Paradise Road became the pickup and drop-off location for Grand Prix attendees. Space in the property that housed the center bar when the building was known as Hard Rock Las Vegas was “reactivated” from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. daily with DJs and renewed energy. Atkinson said Virgin rented several golf carts to help shuttle guests between the resort and the race facility.

In addition to paddock area skybox suites, Virgin had grandstand seating access at the start-finish line.

“We kind of went for it. We sponsored…

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Tuesday, January 02, 2024

Rob Horowitz, MINDSETTER™

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Bruce Springsteen PHOTO: File, Mohegan Sun, 2014

For the past eleven years, I’ve written a New Year’s column listing reasons for optimism. Click and see how I did last year.  This year, I do the same. It remains the nature of news and opinion writing that positive developments get short shrift.

As we begin 2024, 5 reasons for optimism are outlined below:

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·      Nearly 200 nations agreed to accelerate the transition away from carbon-producing fossil fuels at the recently concluded COP 28 UN Climate Summit. This sends an important market signal, likely increasing the already robust investment in renewable energy worldwide—and hastening the retreat of capital from the fossil fuels industry. Speeding up the phase out of fossil fuels is essential to limiting the increase in global temperatures to the 1.5% Celsius or 2.7 Fahrenheit that scientists tell us we must to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.

·      Violent crime is on a welcome, strong downward trajectory, returning to the lower levels it was at pre-pandemic.   When the final numbers are totaled, for example, the homicide rate is expected to be 13% lower in 2023 than it was in 2022.  The nation’s cities are experiencing particularly pronounced drops as stepped-up investments in crime prevention, taking illegal guns off the streets, and community policing are paying dividends.

·      Latino immigrants show the same patterns of assimilation as previous large-scale groups of immigrants, such as Italian, Irish and Eastern European emigres. As with previous waves of immigration, today’s immigrants come to our nation to seek a better life for their children, succeed in doing…

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ESPELKAMP, GERMANY – After 67 years of operation, Gauselmann Group has changed its name to Merkur Group. The holding company Gauselmann AG will now operate under the new name Merkur.com AG. The renaming was completed on January 1st with the entry in the commercial register.

“The corporate group is becoming increasingly digital and international,” said Paul Gauselmann, company founder and Chairman of the Management Board. “The change of name reflects this fact. Both developments will…

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