Las Vegas, NV – Las Vegas Sands Corp. may become a factor in the evolving New York City trade show market, a top executive hinted.
Mike Leven, president and COO of Las Vegas Sands, told a hotel industry trade publication in March that the company was open to planting its flag in the New York market, although it was too early to say when or if such a project would come to fruition.
“There is a little noise in New York now, and we’re going to take a look and see if we can put something maybe in Manhattan and be able to do maybe something with (the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center) and us and a big place and put our complex in there,” Leven told HotelNewsNow.com. “If the government wants it, we’d be interested in doing it.”
Sands did not immediately respond to a request by Trade Show Executive for additional details.
Leven made his comments amid reports Sands was poised to expand its mixed-use model into Europe with a $22 billion complex dubbed “Eurovegas” in the media that would be built near Madrid. The project, which has yet to be approved by Spain, would include multiple casinos and hotels, retail, golf courses and a convention center of unknown size.
The grand scale of the Spanish project follows the business model Sands has successfully followed in Las Vegas and Asia, but would limit the possibilities in Manhattan. The most likely possibility would be the James A. Farley Post Office, a huge former mail sorting facility that city leaders envision being converted to a meeting facility with a respectable 250,000 square feet of exhibit space.
One possible alternative would be Queens, where plans are in the works to construct what would be the largest convention center in the U.S. on the expansive Aqueduct Race Track property.
The company driving the Aqueduct project is Genty, a Malaysian resort developer that may or may not be interested in a partnership with Sands.
