Lavo Staffs Up!

Lavo, Noah and Jason's upcoming Las Vegas mega project, is beginning to staff up. According to a Little Birdy, they are pulling their from Los Angeles. Says our LB:

Suk Sung, of Opera, Crimson, and Mood (though probably less proud of that last one), is moving from LA to Vegas at the end of the month to help start it up.

Our Little Birdy explains further that managers and hosts from both coasts are looking to move to the desert, and really, who can blame them. Unlike LA and NYC, hospitality makes the Vegas world go round, so middle management types are eager to use hotel mega clubs as a spring board to increased pay and greater opportunities. Tax trouble not included.

Noah and Jason Live LAVO

Thanks to Lloyd Grove and a super long interview with Noah Tepperberg on Portfolio's website, we get a bit more information on Noah and Jason's upcoming Las Vegas project with Sammy Sass. You know, the one we told you about in January. Noah tells Lloyd

And now Jason, myself, Seth (Rodsky), Mark (Packer), and Rich (Wolf) have again partnered to open a new place in Las Vegas, which will be opening in about three months in the Palazzo hotel. It's a restaurant and a nightclub, rather large, and it's going to be called Lavo.

Fascinating stuff. Not only that, a Little Birdy tells us that it is designed by Avro/Ko. We look forward to it.

[Photo credit]

Trouble on the Strip

The credit crisis has struck again. This week's victim is the Crown Las Vegas project, which was supposed to be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, but will no longer be built. Judging by the building design (vibrator anyone?), architecture fans will not be too sad, but what does it mean for John Q. Tourist? As the economy continues to soften, expect American's leisure travel to decline by the end of the year. Unlike the boutiques of Manhattan, Las Vegas is a bit too far for the average Londoner or other European to get away to for the weekend. Asian gamblers now have numerous options in Macao. Result? The desert resorts will surely suffer from a lack of visitors, share values will drop and a developer looking to get a chunk of land on the strip for cheap will pounce on a site like this and try and capitalize during the next boom. Scary times ahead for the hospitality industry. Scary times indeed.