Daily Archives: January 29, 2021

Scratching the surface – Isthmus

Posted: January 29, 2021 at 11:36 am

Forward Theater Company has a knack for choosing plays that are accidentally a bit on the nose. Last year they planned on producing The Amateurs the story of a troupe of 14th century actors during the Black Plague which was canceled due to the outbreak of COVID-19. This season they chose The Niceties by Eleanor Burgess a play about people so entrenched in their opposing views that they cannot hear each others arguments across the enormous ideological crevasse that separates them. That describes this political moment in the U.S. to a tee.

Unfortunately this piece, available for streaming through Feb. 7, barely scratches the surface of the current, essential conversations that need to happen about race in this country. The weak script, uneven performances, and poor production values undercut the exchanges it would like to provoke.

The Niceties is a period drama set in 2016 on an elite college campus in Connecticut. It was originally inspired by the controversy surrounding a memo to Yale students from the administration that urged them not to don racially offensive costumes for Halloween. In response, one of the professors suggested that college kids wear what they want and talk to each other about crossing boundaries. This led to a much larger protest about institutional insensitivity to Yales BIPOC students and the playwrights observation that little actual communication resulted from the subsequent outrage.

Though it was only five years ago, it feels like decades have passed since then. Compared to the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in response to the murder of George Floyd last summer, two hours of vitriol over issues of political correctness on a college campus seems positively quaint. And while The Niceties documents that moment, it doesnt add to the current conversation.

The biggest problem with The Niceties is that the characters are written as types who simply personify diametrically opposing views. Janice (played by Sarah Day) is a highly esteemed, white college professor at an Ivy League school, a 60-something Baby Boomer who has been insulated from reality by her position in the ivory tower. Cynical, condescending, and occasionally oblivious, she has a very practical view of how to couch unpleasant messages to those in power and affect change in a white, patriarchal society. On the other end of the spectrum is Zoe (played by an impressive Samantha Newcomb), a bright, passionate, Black 20-year-old college junior, majoring in political science. She feels it is her duty to protest injustice, foment change, and awaken the establishment to racism wherever she sees it from colonial syllabi and whitewashed history courses to micro-aggressions of mispronouncing students names. A Millennial and an idealist, she demands attention, validation, and immediate action.

To minimally complicate the characters, Zoe is from a well-heeled East Coast family and Janice is from working-class, immigrant stock. The professor is also a lesbian who has had her own struggles with lack of representation, prejudice, and legal inequality. They take turns being right, being sanctimonious, and wielding the power in the room.

Although the authors notes urge us to see the characters as equally flawed, three-dimensional people, its hard not to loathe Janice from the start, as she tosses off tone-deaf, white-privileged statements and mounts simplistic straw-man arguments. Her suspicion of any information found on the internet and instruction to Zoe that she should just go find primary sources from 18th century enslaved people to bolster her papers thesis sound ludicrous in 2016. Her bristling at using correct pronouns for her students and hurling you people at a student during office hours are equally ridiculous.

Not to be outdone, Zoes demands for change strain credulity because they are positioned as all or nothing ultimatums. At one point she tells Janice to quit her job and get out of the way so a person of color can have her post. And although she consistently accuses her professor of not listening to her, she is just as unwilling to hear things that dont square with her experience. Her own emotional truth trumps any opposing view.

In the end, both women seize opportunities for revenge instead of reconciliation, shifting our sympathies back and forth in a way that feels manipulative. Instead of developed character arcs, the play gives us two people who suffer for their actions but dont learn from them. Their very long argument ends with a final, ominous threat instead of any kind of growth or self-awareness on either side. Even as a cautionary tale, this is unsatisfying.

Under normal conditions this would be a difficult play to stage because its very talky and static except for a scuffle over a cell phone, there is no physical action prescribed in the text. In the current virtual world of playmaking, its even more problematic and proves the point that people who know how to make amazing plays dont necessarily know how to translate them to film.

The two actresses were recorded in front of green screens in their homes and directed remotely by Jen Uphoff Gray and DiMonte Henning. But the literal distance between them deflates the tension the actors are able to muster in each scene, just like it did in FTCs previous virtual play, The Lifespan of a Fact. Instead of floating heads in boxes that were used to seeing in online readings, the actors are superimposed onto an office backdrop, but its far from seamless. The performers gazes dont always match up, so at times they are not looking at each other while speaking. Theres a green fuzzy halo around the edges of bodies and props. A physical altercation between the two of them is unconvincing. Objects appear to float in space or are disproportionate to one another. And in its best moments, the actors simply sit still on two sides of a table and argue.

Further undermining the plays performance is the fact that one actress is off-book and the other one is quite obviously reading her script on the table in front of her. This prevents the scenes from flowing naturally and breaks thoughts up in artificial places. Its also not what audiences expect from a full, professional production, even in challenging times.

There are scheduled talkbacks after four more performances, and perhaps thats where audience members can have some meaningful conversations about race. But if they do, those conversations will probably be much more informed by the Black Lives Matter movement than by the presentation of this play.

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Scratching the surface - Isthmus

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Four Shawnee Mission Schools Will Have New Mascots, After Years Of Using Native American Imagery – KMUW

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Four schools in the Shawnee Mission School District will have new mascots by the end of the school year after the districts board of education voted unanimously last night in favor of a policy that bans what it calls derogatory or offensive mascots.

The change will affect Belinder Elementary, Rushton Elementary, and Shawanoe Elementary Schools, and Shawnee Mission North High School in Overland Park.

This is not a recent desire for change following a Black Lives Matter summer of activism, nor is it about political correctness, Shawnee Mission North graduate Alisha Vincent told school board members. "There have been people in this community working toward more inclusive indigenous recognition for decades.

Vincents daughter Halley, a sixth grader whose future school would be Shawnee Mission North, has taken a leading role in the push for change.

For months, she collected letters of support from community groups including staff members at Haskell Indian Nations University, Navajo Nation member and Kansas Rep. Christina Haswood and the Kansas City Indian Center, and presented them to the school board.

Under the new policy, mascots must now:

It will be up to the individual school principals to bring together students, staff, parents and others to decide on a new mascot.

District Superintendent Mike Fulton said, while the selection of the mascot needs to happen by the end of the school year, the change wont be immediate.

The actual implementation of the new mascot may vary by school, he said. It depends on the nature of how big that change is, and the amount of time it will take to accomplish completing that change.

In a written statement with Board of Education President Heather Ousley, Chief Ben Barnes of the Shawnee Tribe in Oklahoma called the move a first step.

The time has come to better align our language and our symbols to the values we represent, he wrote. Together, we will continue to work toward practices and procedures that treat all peoples with dignity and respect.

The move was not without opponents. An online petition to keep the Indians as Shawnee Mission Norths mascot, which it has used for 98 years, has nearly 3,000 signatures.

Emmitt Monslow, another Shawnee Mission North alumnus, asked school board members to delay the decision until later.

My biggest question I have when people are trying to remove names and images of Indians is what do we really get, as Indians, from these changes? he said. I know what we lose if we remove the names and images a seat at the table. Because after everyone has forgotten Shawnee Mission North Indians, what is the need to educate on who Indians are?

In November, Neiman Elementary School in Shawnee independently changed its mascot from the Indians to the Foxes. That change was led by the schools student council and approved by the principal and district assistant superintendent of elementary schools.

Gaylene Crouser, executive director of the Kansas City Indian Center, said the districts change is a result of a new push from students coupled with a decades-long effort from Native American organizations in the region.

Weve been asking them for years, weve been telling them for years, she said, and people are finally starting to listen.

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The US Capitol riot was not the language of the unheard – Business Insider – Business Insider

Posted: at 11:36 am

It is fast becoming orthodoxy among both lefty contrarians and conservative apologists that, from the online cult of QAnon to the men and women who stormed the US Capitol in real life, the problem of the far-right stems mainly from disenfranchisement from bottled up resentment, provided no outlet by the effete snobs in publishing, exploding with righteous albeit delusional fury.

"These people know they are scorned and looked down upon," one right-wing blogger recently told a left-wing podcaster, "and the more you humiliate and make them feel powerless, the more you take away their ability to organize and express that rage, it's gonna find an outlet in more destructive ways."

Megyn Kelly, a former on-air personality at Fox News and NBC News, likewise blamed the media "the enemy of the people," in a former president's phrasing for spurring domestic right-wing terrorism. "Part of the reason we saw what happened at the Capitol here two weeks ago is because there has been a complete lack of trust, a destruction of trust in the media, and people don't know where to turn for true information," she maintained.

The problem is that this has not been the problem at all.

Civil unrest can often be viewed as the language of the unheard, per Martin Luther King, Jr.

This riot was egged on by the then-most powerful man in the world to amplify his grievance: his inability to accept he lost an election. This was a riot made up in part of small business owners, off-duty cops, military veterans, and the otherwise better off some whom even took a private jet to DC for the riot. It was largely an insurrection comprised by those to whom power has traditionally catered a white population who fears an ebbing of their privileged status, and others entering the democratic chat incited by the ultra-rich former president.

After an insurrection, an overdue national conversation about preserving democracy was drowned out, with the help of big media, by a reactionary conflation of "free speech" with the right to spread disinformation in private media. Political correctness, so-called, became "cancel culture": the red herring that, more so than overthrowing the republic, became the hot new threat to freedom and mom's apple pie.

But it has been remarkably ineffective, this recent spate of canceling. Big Tech is happy to shovel inflammatory content into the gaping mouths of consumers, blaming the algorithms they designed for the fact that anger, above all, means engagement (while the performance of wet-blanket fact check is abysmal). It has not been censorious liberalism that has ruled the online world, but capitalism. Dollars and cents. Clicks and views.

And so it is that the angriest, with the most outrageous opinions about politics and society, have not been silenced but amplified each irrational fear reported by media outlets eager to fight a no-win battle against the perception of a liberal bias.

Amid cries of censorship, reactionary content overperforms on Facebook, a site where the reactionary tabloid Breitbart, formerly run by Steve Bannon, was formally considered a "trustworthy" news entity in 2019 by the social media giant, part of an explicit appeal to the far right of the political spectrum. One cable news network has been devoted solely to airing their grievances, and at least two others have sprung up to air them even harder. There was a presidency and, for a time, two echo-chambers of Congress dedicated to "triggering the libs" on behalf of this constituency.

Right-wing extremism did not fester in dark corners. It all happened out in the open with followers led down a rabbit hole by the world's most powerful man the TV billionaire who started out promoting conspiracy theories about Barack Obama's place of birth and a cast of faux-populist millionaires willing to entertain falsehoods, on television, about everything from COVID-19 to the 2020 election.

Sedition was plotted and streamed on Facebook and Parler. While the events of January 6 were shocking, there really wasn't an element of surprise.

The belated removal of Donald Trump from platforms like Twitter is not the apotheosis of "safe space" culture, nor does it mean liberals and leftists have to put their faith in the Big Tech giants. It is, in fact, the least that could be done: holding the powerful to the same terms of service applied to shock-jock internet comedians and two-bit online harassers.

For years, the far-right used mainstream platforms to organize, these social networks indeed serving as a melting pot for locked-down conspiracy theorists to vigilante killers; half-measures to thwart this, taken after several terrorist attacks and a violent coup attempt incited by a head of state, are an embarrassed acknowledgment of this.

There are pitfalls to not allowing everything that could be said to be said, and no one trusts tech to reliably pursue the public- over self-interest. But the status quo was neither benign nor neutral. The worst rose to the top, with a lift from foreign states andAmerican politicians not the powerless who used formerly inane technology to inflame the masses. In Myanmar, that meant sparking a genocide against the Rohingya, Facebook fees serving as the 21st century Radio Rwanda. In the United States, that's a third of the Republican Party believing in QAnon, a digital rehash of a 19th-century anti-Semitic hoax.

The issue is decidedly not that the far-right among us have been denied a platform, but rather that they have been handed megaphones by corporations and politicians, Americans' worst natures exacerbated and monetized. Legitimizing a victimhood mentality that's been used to justify an increasingly violent and unhinged resentment only compounds the error.

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Bring the family to ‘ExtravaganzaThe Vegas Spectacular’ in Las Vegas – Lasvegasmagazine

Posted: at 11:35 am

If youre looking for the perfect escape from the craziness of todays world, look no further than ExtravaganzaThe Las Vegas Spectacular. This variety show extraordinaire boasts a huge cast from across the globe, all specializing in a different talentdancers, acrobats, aerialists, skaters, comedians, showgirls and so much more.

The various acts, including roller skaters Pavel Bahaslou and Anastasiia Bogoslova, and the Globe of Death, featuring a gigantic metal sphere and three talented motorcyclists, are all featured against a backdrop of spectacular sets and massive LED screens. Expect a surprise or two from hologram performances of some of the Strips most famous headliners like Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. And Americas Got Talent star Silvia Silvia makes a special appearance to demonstrate some serious crossbow skills. Her husband, Victor Ponce, will wow you with his plate-spinning ability.

For added safety, all performers in Extravaganza wear masks.

Ballys, 702.777.2782

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Full list of Super Bowl 55 props from the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook – Las Vegas Sun

Posted: at 11:35 am

John Locher / AP

In this Feb. 3, 2019, file photo, prop bets for Super Bowl LIII are on display before the start of the game at the Westgate Superbook sports book in LasVegas.

By Case Keefer

Thu, Jan 28, 2021 (6:55 p.m.)

A football season thats been unlike any other throughout its duration is ending just like normal at least in Las Vegas.

The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook unveiled its expansive Super Bowl proposition-bet menu in its traditional Thursday night slot 10 days before the big game. The rest of the sports books in town will soon follow and officially usher in the biggest single-game gambling event of the year.

Its relatively easy for a bettor to figure out which side they want to take on the point spread, money line and total all of which were released Sunday night but it takes a little more planning on the props. Thats why the below should help.

Find the full prop booklet from Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook below with offerings from other casinos to be added over the next couple days as theyre sent out.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [emailprotected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

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Three pieces of good news that show that Las Vegas will bounce back from the pandemic – Eater Vegas

Posted: at 11:35 am

Ten-plus months into a pandemic and Las Vegas is finally getting some good news. Unemployment dropped statewide, people are ready to hold meetings and conventions in Las Vegas, and net income for casinos increased over 2019 numbers.

Although state mandates keep events to 25 percent capacity or 50 people, whichever is less, conventions are already planning to return to Las Vegas. World of Concrete, the giant construction convention, rescheduled for June 8-10 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and if those dates hold, could be the first huge convention to return to in-person meetings in Las Vegas. Previous World of Concrete conventions drew 60,000-plus attendees.

A new study by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Authority by Reston, Virginia-based Heart+Mind Strategies found that 91 percent of those queried miss face-to-face meetings and 58 percent found themselves burnt out from virtual meetings and conferences. The survey company asked 510 business travelers their thoughts, and found that 77 percent would prefer attending conferences, conventions, and trade shows in person, and 74 percent believe Las Vegas prepared to safely host in-person events in the second half of 2021, according to the Lass Vegas Review-Journal. [LVRJ]

For the first time since the pandemic started and the state shut down nonessential businesses last March, Nevadas jobless rate dropped to 9.2 percent in December, a one point dip from Novembers numbers and the first time unemployment hit single digits. That number is offset by a decline in the number of people not seeking work. The state saw 8,200 non-farm jobs added in December. Nationwide, the unemployment rate for December hit 6.7 percent.

Still, 37,310 filed initial claims for unemployment, an increase of 4,697 claims, or 14.4 percent, over November numbers.

In November, Las Vegas recorded the highest unemployment rate nationwide among big metropolitan areas. At the time, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated 11.5 percent of Las Vegas workers were out of jobs in November, the highest rate among 51 metro cities with at least 1 million people.

Nevada ran out of funds for unemployment after nine months of unemployment during the pandemic, and borrowed $133.5 million in federal loans to continue paying unemployment, the RJ reports. [LVRJ]

The Nevada Gaming Control Board released its numbers for fiscal year 2020, finding that 267 casinos in Nevada that grossed $1 million or more in gaming revenue generated net income of $2.9 billion from total revenues of $18.3 billion. Compare that to fiscal year 2019 when net income of $2 billion was recorded on total revenues of $24.5 billion. Those numbers include money spent on rooms, food, beverages, attractions, as well as gaming. Gaming accounted for $6.7 billion or 36.8 percent of total revenue. Clark County had 157 casinos grossing $1 million or more in gaming revenue, which generated a combined net income of $2.9 billion from total revenues of $16.3 billion. [EaterWire]

How Coronavirus Is Affecting Las Vegas Food and Restaurants [ELV]

Las Vegas Casino Reopenings: All the Updates [ELV]

All AM Intel [ELV]

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13 Things To Do This Week In Las Vegas For Jan. 29-Feb. 4, 2021 – KTNV Las Vegas

Posted: at 11:35 am

The following is a list of 13 Things To Do This Week In Las Vegas.

1. Theres a couple of new murals in Mural Way at the Downtown Container Park. The artist Alive has created a millennium-inspired piece titled Y2K. The mural takes on new life through the AR app Artivive. Brett Rosepilers new work featured a woman enveloped by nature, wisdom and life.

2. The Venetian hotel-casino is ushering in Chinese New year with a Year of the Ox art installation. The centerpiece is a 13-foot-tall female ox named Alessandra Heng. Several food and drink specials are also being offered throughout the property.

3. First Friday is hosting Clothes for Comfort on Jan. 29. The event will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. at 814 S. 3rd Street, in front of Art Houz Theaters. Donations will be taken to SafeNest.

4. Dueling Axes recently opened inside AREA15. The upscale axe throwing facility features an ultra-modern atmosphere, multiple private lanes, great music, beer, wine and food. Reservations required.

5. Meet artists Bill Mack, Deb Mack and Gary Welton from 1 to 5 p.m. Jan. 30 and 31 at Signature Galleries inside Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian hotel-casino. Bill Mack is known for his alto-relief sculptures and Welton is known for his paintings featuring dance and movement.

6. Tom Devlins Monster Museum in Boulder City is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Their mission is to preserve the art and history of special makeup effects. The museum features screen-used props, creature suits and custom pieces.

7. Ferraros Italian Restaurant & Wine Bar is reopening for dinner on Feb. 3. Dinner hours will be 5 to 11 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Guests can look forward to indulging in favorites such as Ferraros Lasagna alla Gino, Gnocchi with house pomodoro sauce and a seasonal Branzino dish, where grilled Mediterranean Sea bass comes with parsnips, lacinato baby kale and fig-guanciale juice. Reservations required.

8. The Neon Museum is offering the virtual presentation Beyond the Boneyard: Restored Roads Relics from 6 to 7 p.m. Feb. 4. Museum staff will discuss the history of various signs and the museums restoration efforts. The event is free but space is limited.

9. The How Did You Survive? Holocaust Education Banner Exhibit is on display now through March 2 at the West Charleston Library Gallery. The exhibit is designed to give an overview of the Holocaust and highlight experiences of the local survivor community.

10. Pole Position Raceway (indoor go-kart racing) offers several racing options. The most popular is Arrive & Drive that allows customers to show up individually or in small groups and race in standard races. Adults and kids welcome (must be at least 48 inches tall).

11. New Zealand's Sam Willis, also known as Tape Face, performs at Harrahs Las Vegas. Tape Face was featured on Americas Got Talent an Americas Got Talent: The Champions. Two shows daily Thursdays through Sundays.

12. Dont Tell Mama, the best piano bar in Las Vegas, is open at Neonopolis in downtown Las Vegas. Doors open at 8 p.m. every night. Guests are invited to sing while the bars talented pianists play. The bars staff also sings.

13. Several brew pubs have popped up in the last couple of years on Main Street in downtown Las Vegas. Check out Beer District Brewing, Hop Nuts Brewing, HUDL Brewing Co., Nevada Brew Works and Able Baker Brewing.

If you would like to submit an item for 13 Things, send an email to joyce.lupiani@ktnv.com. Videos and photos welcome.

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There’s s many ways to enjoy Super Bowl Sunday in Las Vegas – Lasvegasmagazine

Posted: at 11:35 am

And as we head to Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Fla., no doubt youre already making your plans for enjoying the day. Luckily, you picked this week to visit Las Vegas, so get ready for some serious celebrations for sports finest day. But remember: Because of social distancing guidelines, please make reservations!

Calling it an epic takeover in Super Bowl fun, owner Derek Stevens guarantees the time of your life at Circa Resort & Casinos sportsbook, Circa | Sports, boasting a 78-million-pixel, high-def screen. Choose from four VIP experiences: Club Upper (a birds-eye view), Club Lower (for medium-to-large groups), Champions Club (plenty of family-style seating) and Legends Club (directly in front of the screen). With each package, enjoy all the food and beverage from Circa restaurants you can handle!

Circa keeps the party going to Stadium Swim, featuring a 14-million-megapixel screen. Packages range from The G.O.A.T., where you get two magnum bottles of select spirits, a magnum bottle of champagne, a case of beer, 12 Red Bulls and three food platters, to Sideline Passes, offering a choice between three beers or one pitcher of a select specialty cocktail.

There are also gameday specials galore at Stevens The D, including private man caves with unlimited food and drink specials, and the 11,000-square-foot Big Game party hub on the propertys 12th floor, again with unlimited food and drink.

If moneys no object, head to Cabo Wabo Cantina at Miracle Mile Shops, where the price tag is $200 per person. But for that, you get all you can eat (guacamole, chips and chicken wings, carne and chicken sliders and churro and brownie bites) and drink (house margaritas, handcrafted cocktails and draft and bottled beers).

Treasure Island offers numerous viewing options, including bottomless drinks at Gilleys Saloon, Dance Hall & Bar-B-Que and the Golden Circle Sportsbook and Bar. Both venues offerings are $99 and reserved seating. For an additional cost, enjoy Cowboy Burgers and Southern fried chicken at Gilleys, and chicken wings, giant pretzels and bison burgers at Golden Circle.

At Westgate Las Vegas, enjoy gameday-themed food and beverage specials while watching the fun on the SuperBooks massive, 4,200-plus square feet of newly renovated high-definition digital screens.

Trustworthy Brewing Co. at The Grand Canal Shoppes offers great gameday specials, including 24-ounce featured draft beers for $9, 16-ounce featured draft beers with a shot of Jim Beam for $12 and Jim Beam cocktails for $9.

Caesars Entertainment has plenty of fun in store, too. Guy Fieris Vegas Kitchen & Bar at the Linq Hotel and Gordon Ramsay Burger at Planet Hollywood both offer packages starting at $200 per person.

Station Casinos has your party ready and waiting. Tables at Red Rock Casinos Lucky Bar can be reserved for $350 per party, and Green Valley Ranchs Borracha Mexican Cantina has limited availability for football viewing with a $95 food and beverage minimum. Wherever you go, enjoy responsibly!

Click here for your free subscription to the weekly digital edition of Las Vegas Magazine, your guide to everything to do, hear, see and experience in Southern Nevada. As part of your subscription, each week via email you will receive the latest edition of Las Vegas Magazine, full of informative content such as restaurants to visit, cocktails to sip and attractions to enjoy.

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A Las Vegas Mall Became Nearly Worthless in Six Months. Its Probably Not the Last | BoF – The Business of Fashion

Posted: at 11:35 am

Shoppers at an outlet mall. Shutterstock.

The Prizm Outlets mall, about a 40-minute drive south of Las Vegas on the California border, lost 95 percent of its value in six months. It may not be the last mall to do so.

Formerly known as theFashionOutlets of Las Vegas, the Primm, Nevada mall was auctioned off on Wednesday at a final price of $1.525 million, compared with a $28.2 million appraisal in July, according to a person with knowledge of the results on commercial real estate auction site Ten-X. The buyer wasnt disclosed.

Its the first auction of a property linked to the so-called CMBX 6, a commercial real estate credit derivatives index with heavy exposure to shopping centres and malls, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

We expect mall liquidations to continue: 31 of the 39 malls in CMBX 6 are currently impaired, said Dan McNamara, a principal at hedge fund MP Securitized Credit Partners, which has bet against CMBX 6 as part of its broader strategy.

The property is currently 57.5% occupied with anchors H&M, Nike and Williams Sonoma, according to a report this month from its servicer, which collects payments from the mall for bondholders. The mall was closed on March 17 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and re-opened on June 1.

Representatives from Prizm Outlets and Rialto Capital Management, the seller and servicer, both declined comment. A call to the malls marketing agent wasnt returned, while a representative for Ten-X confirmed the auction was completed and declined further comment.

A loan on the property with an original balance of $73 million was bundled into a commercial mortgage-backed security called COMM 2012-CR4 in October 2012, one of 48 loans packaged into the multi-loan transaction known as a conduit, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That year, the property was valued at $125 million.

While the AAA-rated parts of the transaction have kept their grades so far, all rating tiers AA and below were downgraded several times by credit ratings firms, including a series of cuts by Moodys Investors Service in July.

Miami-based Rialto foreclosed on the mall in 2018 and invested in upgrades and kept it open, according to servicer filings and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

In 2017, firms including Deutsche Bank AG and Morgan Stanley recommended betting against commercial real estate, and in particular malls and shopping centres, using indexes of commercial mortgage bonds, in a trade that became popular.

Series 6 of the CMBX index, linked to debt issued in 2012, has outsized exposure to shopping malls, making it appealing to traders who want to bet against retail space. The short bet soured for a few years as malls were able to survive.

But fortunes reversed amid the pandemics lockdown orders last year. People stayed home and shopped online, exacerbating an existing threat to brick-and-mortar stores, and even after many states allowed retailers to open up again, shopper traffic remained low.

While there will surely be more mall casualties, there may also be some winners, market observers say.

Retail outlets that are well-positioned geographically or that have re-thought the customer experience will have the best opportunity for success forward from here, said Chris Sullivan, chief investment officer of the United Nations Federal Credit Union.

By Adam Tempkin

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Reports of Las Vegas’ death greatly exaggerated, gaming executive says – Las Vegas Sun

Posted: at 11:35 am

Executives of a major Strip resort company see more short-term pain but long-term optimism for Las Vegas, especially in the convention sector.

Las Vegas Sands CEO Rob Goldstein said today he doesnt buy theories that the Las Vegas tourism market will be forever altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has sent shock waves through the industry for most of the past year.

Theres been recent commentary thats been fun to read about how Las Vegas will never return to pre-pandemic levels, Goldstein said. Some are saying Las Vegas best days are behind it. Ive heard all this before over the past 20 or 30 years. Theres no question that this town is struggling now, but we believe Las Vegas has plenty of gas in the tank.

Goldstein, named CEO after the death of Las Vegas Sands founder Sheldon Adelson earlier this month, made his comments during a quarterly earnings conference call.

Goldstein said the companys convention bookings for 2022 through 2027 in Las Vegas have been unbelievable, but it could take until the end of this year for visitation to spike.

Convention visitation in Las Vegas was all but nil for the last half of 2020 because of the pandemic and health and safety concerns about large crowds, especially at indoor spaces.

For the three months that ended Dec. 31, Las Vegas Sands properties on the Strip posted net revenues of $150 million, down significantly from the $475 million posted in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Overall, the company showed net revenues of $1.15 billion for last quarter, a drop of 67% from the fourth quarter of 2019.

Though Strip visitation has been down since the start of the pandemic, Sands officials pointed to positive signs in recent months for weekend hotel occupancy at the Venetian and Palazzo.

Thats despite the Palazzo being closed for part of December because of a lack of demand.

We think theres a huge amount of potential pent-up demand (for Las Vegas), said Patrick Dumont, the companys president and chief operating officer. Really, the restrictions in Las Vegas now are based on the capacity constraints set by the government. On weekends, were actually doing quite well.

Late last year, the company acknowledge it might be interested in selling its Las Vegas assets the Venetian, Palazzo and Sands Expo and Convention Center though officials said today there was nothing to report on any potential deal.

Dumont hinted during the call that the company may choose to wait until business in Las Vegas rebounds before seriously exploring any possible sale.

We remain very bullish on the return of Las Vegas, post-pandemic, Goldstein said. This is a unique town. Demand will be there. You can have all the digital products out there you want, but people will still want the visitation, and this town has a lot to offer.

Along with its Strip properties, Sands also holds major casino and resort developments in China and Singapore.

Sands employs about 9,000 people in Las Vegas.

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Reports of Las Vegas' death greatly exaggerated, gaming executive says - Las Vegas Sun

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