In the second part, Jim Murren talked about what went behind the scene on his struggles of keeping City Center Project on track.
CityCenter is a 17 million sq ft complex on 76 acres, currently under construction by MGM Mirage and Dubai World on the Las Vegas Strip. It is the largest undertaking of commercial development. Part of CityCenter is going to open by the end of this year. When fully functional, it will add 6,000 rooms to MGM Mirage capacity and the company will hire 12,000 people.
The project cost about $11 billion, far exceeding the original estimate of $4 billion. Earlier this year, Joint Venture partner Dubai World sued MGM Mirage for breach of contract and thus decided to not make its payment of US$200 million in financing, required to keep the project on track. As of April 17, 2009, MGM Mirage and Dubai World have agreed to a set of terms that would ensure the completion of CityCenter.
Jim Murren claimed that he has not made a mistake in pushing ahead with CityCenter and the opening will help reviving Las Vegas.
Jim Murren also responded to questions on 37% shareholder Kirk Kerkorian’s recent announcement that he is exploring the possibility of strategic partnerships or other alternatives" for his stake in the Las Vegas-based casino company.
Murren Commented: "I can't speak for what their intentions are right now, but I can say that their investment intent has apparently changed. And it's gone from one as somewhat a passive investor to one that's going to take a more active role in attempting to increase shareholder value for all shareholders."
On the company’s stock and future, Murren said investors are regaining their interest in casino and hotel companies now because of a sense that the economy is turning around.
"I know just from the dialogue that we're having that there are more people interested in the gaming sector than earlier this year when the future of a lot of these companies in the industry was in doubt and the economy was in worse shape," Murren said. "We've turned the corner."
This is the second half of the interview:
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The first half of the interview can be found here.
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