Just curious... How many of this proposed project's opponents have been to Vegas and seen the various MGM properties in person? Better yet, how many have been to Vegas in the last few years and walked through newer (and quite stunning) complexes like Aria and the new Wynn Resort? This is not a rhetorical question, I'd honestly like to know...
I have.
No one is advocating for, or expecting a "Vegas North" to spring up in the GTA... I'm simply asking if you and others have been inside specific resorts like Aria... A 6 Billion dollar Aria-esque resort in Toronto would be an amazing addition IMO...
There really are two issues here. One, is there any prospect that we would get something like Aria/Cityplace? And two, would that be a good thing?
On the first point, I am highly skeptical. MGM's announcement was $2 to 6 billion. Fallsview cost $1 billion. If MGM puts in something on the low end, will it be twice as good as Fallsview? Or just twice as big? I have no confidence that our provincial government, currently in a minority and facing a big deficit, will hold MGM or any other developer to task to get something of the quality of Aria/Cityplace. And I have no confidence in our current City administration to fill the gap. While Cityplace is striking, MGM's resorts outside of Vegas are not exactly architectural wonders. Happy to be proved wrong on this, but I think it is wrong to support a casino project in the abstract on a key piece of land like the Ex/OP.
On the second point, and aside from its striking appearance, Cityplace is a big enclosed complex, mostly back from the main street, with little to no streetfront retail, a large mall with stores I don't shop in (and most people can't afford to), and the usual casino/Cirque show/Jean Georges et al restaurants/hotel as everywhere else in Vegas. It also has two largely vacant condo towers. If put in Toronto, we could expect that the condos would sell. Everything was
nice, I suppose, but I wasn't inclined to spend a lot of time there. At least some of the other resorts have Las Vegas novelties that are entertaining on your first visit, like the gorgeous fountain at Bellagio. I didn't care for the lighting in the casino, I preferred playing my blackjack in other places.
Of course, much of this is subjective, what I disagree with is putting a self-contained casino-entertainment complex on Ex/OP lands. A few posters have said that whatever is built should be urban form. I agree with this, and could even support a casino project that supplemented what is already at the Ex, led to improvements in landscaping and brought streetlife in place of the parking lots, perhaps with a grand square with a large Bellagio-like fountain. Ideally this project would also lead to an enhanced OP with a new and better waterpark, more shows at Amphitheatre, etc.; the building of a Lakeshore LRT to connect the big numbers of people that will be at Humber Shores; an improved bike/jogging path to connect the huge numbers of people who use the current one on the Western Beaches with Harbourfront and downtown. Others will have different pipe dreams. But when you're dealing with a company like MGM (whose business model is premised on suckering people) and our current provincial and city governments, I predict something crappy. Even if it costs $4 billion.