To B or not to B. That isn’t the question in Las Vegas this Market week, where there's a B-in, as many buyers made an expected B-line with curious delight to the stunning 16-store edifice with killer views of the glittering city.
Yes, an upbeat mood pervaded the new structure, where order writing was reportedly satisfactory. Together Buildings A and B, the combined square footage of permanent showrooms is a skosh shy of 3 million square feet on the way to proposed 10 million or more square feet by 2013.
Despite all the obvious attention — including a million dollar Mid Winter Night's Dream entertainment show — the real question, the B-question, is all about Business and how much it will be.
Of course, markets still mean business, after all is said and done. While the industry may possesses a good idea of the potential of the Las Vegas Market, people are still eager to know just how much this multi-billion dollar investment — for the developers and the industry — will generate in more business .
Some hints emerged in a typically gleeful news conference today. In between many expressions of gratitude and mutual admiration from, to and between the developers and Mayor Oscar Goodman, co-developer Shawn Samson, along with Jack Kashani, said the WMC mission is to “enlighten and inform consumers in a new way.”
That a shout across the bow, so to speak. It means Las Vegas seeks to be an aggressive mercantile oracle, as a technology-driven platform to facilitate fresh ways the industry and consumers interact online, in person, in stores and in their minds. WMC will be intensifying how it becomes more involved with the millions of visitors to Las Vegas, as well as North America.
WMC developers said they are banking on the future and making it in Building talk as simple as ABC, with emphasis on Building C, a 2.1 million square foot showroom structure under construction and set to debut in Summer 2008. That will be just more than 5 million square feet.
More than Buildings A and B, Building C will be the most pivotal for WMC. It's success will determine the future. Until it opens, the industry will watching and waiting to C what happens.
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