Although the opening of new hotels in Las Vegas has slowed with the economy, we are still getting the occasional event, the next one being the Cosmopolitan Hotel at City Center on the Strip set to open over the New Year's Eve weekend.



In case you are wondering where City Center was built, it's between the Monte Carlo and Bellagio. There was this little old casino, The Boardwalk, there that was imploded a couple of years ago. You may remember it as the one with a fake roller coaster and a scary clown sign. It was dwarfed by its larger neighbors.



City Center is a complex of ultra-modern buildings, only two of which (Aria and Cosmopolitan) have casinos. Many of the others are condo-hotels, meaning that they were marketed as a second-home condo that would be rented out as a hotel room when the owner was away. This has fallen a little flat in Las Vegas, with a lot of the buyers unable to close escrow on the properties when they were completed due to the mortgage crisis - they couldn't get a loan. The property values plummeted and buyers who still planned on closing the deal wanted to renegotiate the purchase price, so there was a lot of litigation involved, and it continues.



From today's Las Vegas Sun online:


"A night of New Year’s Eve partying at a Las Vegas Strip resort can be pricey, but ringing in the new year at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas could cost you a small fortune.

The soon-to-open resort released details this week of its exclusive (and expensive) New Year’s Eve package, which comes with a whopping $5,600 price tag. Cosmopolitan boasts that the package includes an elbow rub with the stars as the resort celebrates its grand opening and ushers in 2011.

The $5,600 price tag will get you three nights, Dec. 30 through Jan. 1, in one of Cosmopolitan’s standard hotel rooms (one layout has a balcony, one doesn’t), admission to the opening of Marquee nightclub, two tickets to the invitation-only Coldplay/Jay-Z concert and a $300 food and beverage credit for dinner for two on New Year’s Eve, with brunch the next day.

Few Las Vegas resorts are offering similar packages for New Year’s Eve, but even an a la carte menu of some of the best features at some of the best Las Vegas hotels doesn’t come close in price to Cosmopolitan’s New Year’s Eve experience. But as Cosmopolitan has proclaimed, “It's not for everyone.”

At Aria, three nights in a standard room, two of the best seats at “Viva Elvis,” admission for two to Haze nightclub and a four-course dinner at Union steakhouse would cost a guest about $2,080.

Three nights at Bellagio with two of the priciest tickets to “O,” admission for two at Bank nightclub and a four-course meal would be about $2,400.

At Wynn Las Vegas, a three-night stay over New Year’s Eve weekend runs about $1,500. Add in two VIP tickets to "Le Reve," admission for two to Surrender nightclub and a three-course prix fixe meal at Alex, and the cost totals more than $2,100.

Palms is one of the only other hotels running a New Year’s Eve package, starting at $850 for two nights and including two tickets to its Thirty Seconds to Mars concert and four drinks. Tickets for two to Moon cost an additional $250 each.

Palazzo's “Prestige Suite” package for three nights is about $1,700 for New Year’s Eve weekend. The package includes limo pick-up at the airport, a champagne check in, breakfast each morning, access to the spa and a daily cocktail reception. For another $200 apiece, add admission to Tao nightclub next door at the Venetian — Kim Kardashian sighting included."