Without Steve Wynn, Las Vegas would not be the city it is today. He has elevated Las Vegas time and again through his iconic hotel and casino projects. However his personal journey is just as amazing. His path to becoming a real estate developer began in his early twenties when he came to Las Vegas. He was a young man eager to learn every detail about the business.
Still on his journey, Mr. Wynn's iconic properties include the Wynn and Encore resorts in Las Vegas and Macau, the Wynn Palace on the Cotai Strip in Macau and The Wynn in Everett, Massachusetts. Humorously stating that he has been more lucky than smart, he candidly recounts the series of amazing experiences, coincidences and opportunities upon which he built his success.
While Steve Wynn was finishing his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, his father, Michael, died during heart surgery at 47 years old. Steve had just six weeks to go before graduation. He had also been accepted to attend law school at Yale.
Steve’s father had a bingo parlor in Maryland. With his father gone, Steve had to take the wheel of his father's bingo business. He became the sole provider for his mother, brother, and young wife Elaine. He attempted to attend Georgetown instead of Yale to pursue his law degree for a semester or two while running the family business. He would let go of his pursuit of a law degree to focus on the bingo business.
Steve's dream was to become a developer. He successfully ran his father's business. To his good fortune, Steve was able to set aside enough money so he could have the liberty to pursue his dream.
Steve Wynn found his opportunity to become a real estate developer in a farm by the Baltimore/Washington International Airport. He saw an opportunity to develop the land into an industrial park. He also saw the path to get the property rezoned where others might have trouble doing so.
Steve could acquire the property for $1,000,000. He just needed the financing. He eventually approached John MacArthur of Banker's Life and Casualty and offered him half of the deal. MacArthur declined, but the twist of fate would send him on the path to Las Vegas.
A few weeks after Steve Wynn met with John MacArthur, the met again at the Plaza Hotel to discuss an opportunity MacArthur had in a property in Las Vegas. The insurance company owned The Last Frontier and they had been unsuccessful in selling the property.
A group had instead offered to lease the property from the insurance company. However John MacArthur felt Steve Wynn could look after his interests if Steve was part of the group of lessees which Mr. MacArthur would arrange. They came to an agreement, and Steve would be on his way to Las Vegas.
At 23 years old, Steve headed out on a trip to Las Vegas with his young wife and the friend of his father’s who had introduced him to John MacArthur. On their way there, they ended up in Palm Springs dining at Ruby’s Dunes.
Low and behold at the table next to them was Frank Sinatra. When Frank said hello to Steve’s friend and all had met, Frank invited them to stay with them at The Sands Hotel as guests of Frank Sinatra, and thus began Steve’s introduction to Las Vegas.
In 1967, Steve Wynn would invest in Las Vegas. The deal would evolve into Steve becoming a shareholder in the venture that would own The Last Frontier. Behind some of the shareholders were individuals from Detroit that were on the fringes of the business world at best.
Mr. Wynn’s role in the hotel would be that of slot manager and assistant credit manager. Bright, young, and motivated, Steve took advantage of the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the business. He had his sights on having his own property one day.
Howard Hughes had also been interested in acquiring the hotel, which led to Steve forming a relationship with E Parry Thomas, a man that would become a second father to Steve and guide him on his path in Las Vegas.
E Parry Thomas was the owner and chairman of the Bank of Las Vegas which would later become Valley Bank. He was also Howard Hughes’ banker. Steve lobbied the shareholders he could to sell the hotel.
Parry Thomas was subsequently able to acquire the property for Hughes. Mr. Wynn’s first run in the hotel in the casino business would run from July to November 1967.
Once Steve Wynn was free of the Last Frontier, he had to decide upon his next steps. Rather than leave Las Vegas, Parry Thomas convinced him to stay. Las Vegas needed young blood and Steve was ambitious. Given the right opportunities, he could have a bright future in Las Vegas.
Steve would take a brief detour from his pursuit of developing casinos in Las Vegas. With the help of Parry Thomas, He entered the beer and wine distribution business serving Reno and Las Vegas.
Steve’s alcohol and spirits company was Best Brands Distributing. No doubt this experience allowed him to learn the food and beverage business that underlie the casinos, clubs, bars, and restaurants that are an integral part in driving the revenue of the resort and casino properties in Nevada.
In 1972, Steve Wynn’s chance to get into real estate development and the casino business came in the form of a strip of land located next to the Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas strip.
Built by Jay Sarno, Caesars Palace was the top end casino of its era. Caesars would have been the logical owner of the land, and perhaps they would have been if they thought the price made sense for them. Control of the property would have been advantageous to Caesars Palace. However the land was personally owned by Howard Hughes, and the price was considered too high.
As Howard Hughes’ banker, Parry Thomas was able to arrange the sale of the property to Steve at a price just over $1 million. Parry Thomas would also arrange the financing for the property.
As a young ambitious developer, it would have made sense to think Mr. Wynn purchased the property to pursue his dream of developing a resort casino on the funny strip of land next to Caesars Palace.
Steve’s concept for the property was to develop a mob themed casino called “Gangland”. His naive idea for the development made sense given he was the new kid on the block with the bank roll of Parry Thomas, the Mormon banker.
Of course, the mob associations of Las Vegas in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s were more taboo versus the intentional branding of today to associate Vegas with the mob mystique for marketing purposes.
When Caesars Palace caught wind of Mr. Wynn’s idea for his “Gangland” casino next to their resort, they were infuriated. Caesars Palace was the most prestigious casino in Las Vegas, and they couldn’t afford to let such a place tarnish the location, nor the image of their resort.
Steve had the leverage. Caesars Palace would acquire the strip of land for $2.25 million just ten months later. At 29 years old, Steve would make a $1 million profit providing him with the capital that would send him on his way to being one of the most iconic real estate developers in Las Vegas.
When Steve Wynn came to Vegas, the city’s evolution that had lasted for over three decades was winding down. The two destination centers of Las Vegas had been established. The first was downtown Las Vegas. The second was the Las Vegas Strip. By 1970, the designs had gotten stale, and the country would be entering a recession.
Las Vegas was established as a railroad town in 1905. It got its start in what is today’s downtown where the Union Pacific railroad built its train station. The town would evolve around the rail road to serve the company and travelers passing through.
It is downtown where the bars and casinos would originally be established confined to “block 16” as stipulated by the rail road. Block 16 is a block just north of Freemont Street between Ogden Avenue and Utah Avenue.
This limitation would be lifted, and bars and casinos would grow around the downtown area. One of these casinos was the “Golden Nugget” established in 1946 by a syndicate led by a Los Angeles entrepreneur and former vice cop, Guy McAfee. Steve Wynn would later acquire a controlling interest in the Golden Nugget in the 1970’s.
On the way to downtown Las Vegas from Los Angeles was the well trafficked northbound 91 highway. Following a sprinkling of marginal gambling and speakeasy type clubs, the first gambling resort, The El Rancho, was built along the highway establishing the Las Vegas Strip when the resort opened in 1941.
The El Rancho was built by Los Angeles hotelier, Tom Hull, who owned the El Rancho chain of motels. The El Rancho Las Vegas was built as a western styled yet more upscale motel resort with casino, dining, and live entertainment that targeted a higher end clientele.
With its success, the El Rancho’s business model was quickly followed by the Last Frontier, the resort that would bring Steve Wynn to Las Vegas in 1967. The Thunderbird would follow suit. This created the image of 1940’s Las Vegas.
The successful establishment of the casino resort model lead by Tom Hull’s El Rancho would draw the attention of such notable figures as Bugsy Siegel which would begin the iconic era of mob controlled casino resorts that defined the strip of the 1950’s and 1960’s.
After a failed attempt to acquire the El Rancho, Bugsy Siegel moved in on the Flamingo Hilton project that was conceived of by Los Angeles businessman Billy Wilkerson. Bugsy Siegel would fail in his effort, but it would usher in the era of the iconic mafia controlled hotels of the Las Vegas Strip in the 1950’s.
These hotels include the Desert Inn, Sahara, Sands, Dunes, New Frontier, Riviera, Hacienda, Stardust, and Tropicana. When Steve Wynn came to Las Vegas in 1967, this generation of hotels had established the ecosystem and atmosphere on the strip.
These mob casinos all followed the same formula, and thus same approach to design. The owners would form a syndicate to raise enough equity to finance the project. They would then borrow to finance the construction of the hotel.
When it came to the interiors, they would all go to the same company, Parvin Dohrmann out of Los Angeles, who would finance, design, and supply the interiors. As a banker, Parry Thomas would shadow all of these projects. For this reason, the Las Vegas casinos of the era all had that similar distinctive style.
The next revolution in Las Vegas came when Jay Sarno created Caesars Palace on the strip in 1966. The Roman themed resort and casino broke away from the previous generation of smaller hotel casinos. The distinctive architecture and larger than life atmosphere became a draw and destination in and of itself that appealed to an upscale market.
Steve Wynn’s approach years later on the strip would follow suit. Each destination would be stem from a unique idea, theme, and design that was experiential and would outclass the rest.
This common thread between Jay Sarno and Steve Wynn goes back to another revolutionary resort on Miami Beach they both had known, the Fontainebleau. The Fontainebleau opened in Miami in 1954, and both Sarno and Wynn would experience the gardens, curved lines, soaring ceilings, and distinctive atmosphere that left them inspired to create the destinations they did in Las Vegas.
After the sale of the lot to Caesars Palace on the strip, Steve Wynn had the chance to become a player in the world of owning and developing casinos in Las Vegas. He made his first $1 million at the age of 29 on his land deal, and after paying his taxes, Steve had $600,000 to take his next step.
The Golden Nugget was a casino located in downtown Las Vegas. Started by a group of investors from Los Angeles in 1946, Steve had a chance to acquire shares in the Casino.
With the assistance of his banker, he was able to gain control of the corporation and become chairman at 30 years old in 1973. By this time, downtown Las Vegas had no upscale resort. The casino had no rooms.
Steve would change that. Under his control, he used the cash and borrowed additional funds to improve the casino and add premier accommodations to the property. He would initially add 600 rooms to the casino and eventually expand to 1900 rooms over three towers.
The Golden Nugget would bring a luxury hotel to Downtown Las Vegas, and the project showed Steve’s ability to elevate the game.
Steve Wynn was please with the financial performance of the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas upon opening. As a premier casino with hotel rooms in downtown, the Golden Nugget set a new record for itself.
However, even with the impressive financial performance, Steve caught wind of the performance of a friends casino in Atlantic city that took in six times as much over a weekend.
Naturally, Steve was drawn to the opportunity. He set about acquiring land and building a brand new Golden Nugget in Atlantic City that opened in 1980. The Golden Nugget Atlantic City would surpass the competition that merely renovated the older hotels, even though building a new casino would take a year longer to do.
Mr. Wynn operated the casino until 1987 when he had an opportunity to sell. He foresaw the city would become obsolete without the proper infrastructure and environment to do business.
The opening of the Mirage in 1989 gave the Las Vegas strip new life, and gave Las Vegas a new image. Las Vegas had lost its luster through the 1980’s, but Steve Wynn’s acquisition of land on the Las Vegas strip gave him his first chance to build a resort from the ground up.
In the 1970’s, Mr. Wynn was able to acquire a significant amount of property along the strip from the estate of Howard Hughes, which was managed by Hughes’ nephew William Lummis. The Hughes property would have to be assembled with additional properties to form a site suitable for a resort development with frontage along the strip.
From its inception, the project had to break new ground in terms of its design, scale, and business plan. The hotel would have to compete against the MGM, the Hilton, and Caesars Palace. The plan meant incorporating the core businesses of each business into one property.
The scale of the project would be larger than any project that came before it. There had never been a hotel with 3000 rooms. The idea and the design would have to be alluring, distinctive, and experiential.
The idea for the destination came as Steve gazed upon the property he bought with an idea in mind – conflict. What would conflict with the harsh environment of the Southern Nevada desert? The answer was the lush tropical environments of the South Pacific.
The result was an over $600 million destination in Las Vegas that combined a concept with a business plan that could generate a return on the largest investment ever made in Las Vegas up until that time.
The importance of this project was it would prove Las Vegas was a safe place to invest large amounts of capital. Not only did the Mirage reinvigorate the Las Vegas Strip, it provided the basis to underwrite the enormous projects that would follow, defining the Las Vegas Strip today.
