Casino Connection Nevada

Calling Big Spenders

Palazzo Shoppes let you shop till you drop... a small fortune

by Greg Jones

The Shoppes at the Palazzo mark a growing trend of building luxury markets in Las Vegas; tapping into a market that, some would say, befits the new “democratic ideal of luxury.”

High-end retailers like Barney’s, which serves as the lodestar of the enterprise, are expensive but accessible, and due to celebrity endorsements like that of Sarah Jessica Parker, who famously said “if you’re a good girl and you work hard, you get to shop at Barney’s,” that just-barely-attainable taste of luxury becomes a part of the allure. Or the end-all, be-all for those more prone to the Frank Lloyd Wright style of living—the eccentric architect is quoted as saying, “Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities.”

The 60 international boutiques at the Shoppes at the Palazzo certainly represent the luxuries much more than the necessities, but it all ties in with the market Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson is aiming for. As Adelson said in the grand opening press conference, Palazzo and Venetian are luxuries and adult playgrounds for the wealthy, more than they are hangouts and getaways for the mid-market consumers.

So in addition to one of the premier department stores in the country in Barney’s, and its grandiose 85,000-square-foot floor space, the Shoppes also feature places like Bauman Rare Books—which carries 15th century medieval manuscripts alongside other items including the first newspaper copy of the Constitution and books once owned by Thomas Jefferson—and boutiques like Michael Kors and Diane Von Furstenburg.

The 450,000-square-foot ode to commercialism is owned and operated by General Growth Properties, the same company that owns and operates the connected Canal Shoppes at the Venetian, and will partner with Boyd Gaming to operate retail operations at Echelon. The Palazzo Shoppes are 90 percent leased, and while some retailers are bemoaning an economic slowdown—marked by the worst holiday season in five years—the boutique operators are counting on the largesse of the upper class, just like Adelson is with the property as a whole.

And with Barney’s anchoring the retail operations, it’s something Palazzo and Venetian President Robert Goldstein also anticipates.

“The opening of Barney’s is very important to the property,” he said. “Clearly, it’s a statement that will reverberate in this town for years to come.”