Dueling pirate ships, laser shows, erupting volcanos, Hovercraft races on Mars-now that’s entertainment. And that’s real estate.
Owners and developers of shopping centers, casinos and resorts are finding a shot of show biz can be a big boon to real estate projects. Many experts are predicting that most future commercial developments-even sterile office towers-will contain some sort of entertainment component to help them succeed.
“If the public is going to be drawn (to a project) they want something more. They want to feel good about where they are at,” said Toni Alexander, president of Intercommunications, Inc., a Newport Beach, Calif., marketing and consulting firm for real estate and resort projects. “It’s the Disney touch.”
Nowhere is that more apparent today than in Las Vegas.
When Steven Wynn opened The Mirage four years ago, he staged a new scene in Las Vegas gaming. Not just another casino with neon signs and interiors dominated by brass and red velvet, The Mirage created a tropical paradise in the midst of the barren desert strip.
Yes, there are one-armed bandits and blackjack tables. But there’s also a tropical rain forest, waterfalls that turn into volcanos, a dolphin habitat, rare white tigers and more.
Treasure Island, Wynn’s follow-up act which opened in October, adopts a swashbuckling theme. Complete with pirate ships, the casino is the scene of a waterfront battle each evening where the buccaneers defend their booty from the British. Pyrotechnics are plentiful.
Once row upon row of gaming tables, today Las Vegas is becoming “a potpourri of exciting sights and sounds,” Alexander said.
This shift makes Las Vegas appealing to a broader demographic group, observed William Eadington, economics professor at the University of Nevada in Reno and head of the school’s Institute for the Study of Gambling.
But it also has a financial purpose. Las Vegas casino patrons spend an average of five and a half hours gambling each day, according to visitor bureau statistics. But they often bounce from hotel to hotel. If casino operators can keep consumers on their property longer, they stand to capture a larger piece of the gaming pie.
Thinking along the same lines, retail developers are testing new diversions in shopping centers, hoping to attract more shoppers and keep them longer.
Perhaps one of the best examples of entertainment melded with retail-at least in terms of sheer scale-is the Mall of America, developed by Melvin Simon & Associates.
Nestled in Bloomington, Minn., this 4.2 million-square-foot facility has 350 stores surrounding a seven-acre amusement park. After a ride on the 2,600-foot Ripsaw Roller Coaster, visitors can sooth their nerves with a stroll through Bloomingdale’s. (Or vice versa, for those who find shopping unsettling.)
Back in Las Vegas, The Forum Shops at Caesars (which Simon also co-developed) features a skydome ceiling that changes colors each hour. Via computer technology, the ceiling reflects the passing of time from dawn to dusk, moving from rosy hues to midnight blue.
Another highlight of the 240,000-square-foot shopping center is its Festival Fountain. This water fixture is anchored by four statues in the shape of Roman gods. And though they appear to be stationary, the figurines come to life every hour via animatronics, hosting a welcome party for shoppers. The seven-minute show is complete with laser lights, smoke, music, and computerized color projections.
“It used to be easy to put entertainment in shopping malls,” said Roy Aaron, head of Pacific Leisure Entertainment Group, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm. “You did it with movie theaters, gaming arcades, maybe a skating rink. Today it’s more exciting.” But, Aaron adds, “It’s also more difficult and more expensive.”
Indeed, the price tag for the Festival Fountain was more than $4 million. However, the investment appears to be paying off. Industry sources estimated average sales at The Forum Shops were more than $900 per square foot, an impressive number given the best malls usually do $400 or $500 a foot.
“People like to be entertained. They want to feel good,” said John March, president of Creative Presentations, the Valencia, Calif.-based firm responsible for animatronics and engineering of Festival Fountain.
The buying mood is a happy mood, March said, so it makes sense that if people are happier they’ll probably buy more. March is currently working on a new attraction for the Hollywood Casino in west suburban Aurora, which combines animatronics, film, special effects and lighting.
Indeed, technology is playing an increasing important role in design, said Julie Brinkerhoff, executive vice president at Lifescapes Inc., a Newport Beach, Calif., landscape architecture firm that worked on both The Mirage and Treasure Island casinos.
“It’s a simple premise,” explained Alan Feldman, vice president for Mirage Resorts. “It takes a lot more to make people say `wow’ than it did in the ’50s. Society is more sophisticated and it takes more to stimulate our imagination.”
But entertainment doesn’t have to be high tech, experts observed.
Brinkerhoff’s firm is currently working on a new 600-room resort in Israel called the Queen of Sheeba. After construction has been completed, plans are to select one guest as “queen” each day, playing off the old television show “Queen for a Day.”
Brinkerhoff explained the event is a way of increasing involvement between visitors and the resort.
Can office building owners integrate entertainment into their real estate? Sure, answered March.
Commercial developments often set aside funds for artwork, March explained. Instead of a static sculpture, he envisions some sort of animatronic statue, perhaps doing a modern dance.
Not only would people be entertained on their way to and from the office, but this creative approach could give developers an edge when attracting tenants.
“Everything is going from static and dull to dynamic and entertaining,” added March. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a mall or amusement park . . . the places that make you feel good are the places that are going to be successful.”
At least part of the reason that things need to be dynamic is because consumers are in constant motion, more impatient and trying to cram more activities into less time.
“This takes two minutes? I thought you said it was instant,” said Faith Popcorn, a New York marketing trend forecaster. “We want to almost inhale not only our food, but our lives. We’re really rushing. We’re walking the dog, we’re working out, we’re talking on the phone . . . all at the same time.”
Not only does this make one-stop shopping more important, but mood enhancement can be the key to keeping shoppers happy.
“When you walk through most shopping centers, your sensory impulses are zero,” said Los Angeles architect Jon Jerde, who is applauded by many industry observers for his unique approach to retail design.
Jerde, whose credits include such retail projects as Mall of America, CityWalk at Universal City, and, most recently, Downtown Plaza in Sacramento, Calif., explained he is more interested in “architecting an experience” than buildings.
That means, he says, creating an environment where you want to linger rather than leave.
At Downtown Plaza, a rehab of an existing shopping center, Jerde created an Old World ambience through a color scheme of terra cotta, muted blue and olive combined with teak and polished metals. Fountains, sculptures and gardens add to the atmosphere.
“The problem with many cities is they were built so quickly there hasn’t been time to `patina in’ all the things that make places like Greenwich Village so great,” explained Jerde.
“The American suburbs basically wrote out of the script the human experience,” said Jerde.
Moving back and forth from office parks to cookie-cutter subdivisions has created insular and routine lifestyles, Jerde said. “The human being needs more exciting participatory lives,” he said.
And although television, telephones and home computers are becoming more interactive, these devices will not fully numb our social instincts, agreed many industry experts.
“We’re still going to want to mingle with fellow man,” observed Frank Stanek, president of MCA Enterprises International, a division of MCA Inc. in Universal City, Calif.
Even committed cocooners are occasionally going to contract “cocoon fever,” and want to get out of the house.
“You want to do something wonderful and magical. But it’s got to be safe,” said Popcorn.
Here’s where simulators and virtual reality entertainment should make a splash, said experts.
When Virtual World Entertainment opened its first virtual reality arcade in Chicago’s North Pier shopping center, “no one believed this kind of computer-based entertainment would be viable in a commercial space,” said Jordan Weisman, president of Virtual World Entertainment in Chicago.
Today his firm has opened locations in Houston, San Diego and Walnut Creek, Calif., plus four units in Japan and plans an aggressive expansion.
Virtual reality differs from other computer games by providing players with more options and control. “You don’t just watch the hero, you are the hero,” said Larry Domkowski, advertising manager of Virtual World’s Chicago prototype.
Unlike many arcades geared to adolescents, Virtual World targets its product to an older audience, primarily between 18 and 35. The majority of customers are male, but they hail from a wide range of professions, including stockbrokers, doctors and architects, said Domkowski.
A new non-violent game has been added in hopes of attracting more women. Red Planet players race hovercrafts through underground caverns of the planet Mars rather than shooting at each other as in Battle Tech, Virtual World’s first virtual reality offering.
At Virtual World centers, games are played in groups of two or more. If you don’t have a partner, a staff member will play against you, Domkowski said.
“The technology isn’t what this entertainment is all about,” said Weisman. “Technology is purely the medium. It’s the interaction between people that’s important.”
