Cavileer switched careers in 1998, relocating to Las Vegas to become general manager of Roski's Silverton hotel and casino. He has been credited with transforming the rustic highway stopover into a major venue and has spent upwards of $100 million to renovate the 300-room hotel, remake the Silverton's restaurants and attract sporting goods retailer Bass Pro Shops. Another $100 million will be spent on an expansion that will include 300 rooms as well as a spa, conference center, parking garage, buffet, Mexican restaurant and the expansion of two existing restaurants.

Over the next several years, Cavileer expects to begin building a $1.5 billion resort complex that will include at least two additional casinos, time shares, retail stores, restaurants and multiple hotels around a water feature.

You were a real estate developer in Los Angeles before coming to Las Vegas. How did you end up running the Silverton?

I got into the real estate development side of the business in 1988 as a shopping center developer in Southern California. I went to work for Ed (Roski) in 1993 and became part of what then was the new retail development division of Majestic Realty Co. Prior to that, we were a very large industrial real estate developer. The retail was a new area of development. It's grown and now 5 to 6 million square feet of retail has been developed since then.

The Silverton was Ed's project. There were no other junior partners working with Ed on it, which is the way our company is organized, with Ed at the top and guys who specialize in different areas that all become partners in their individual properties. It was a build-to-suit for Boomtown Casinos. We owned the land. Boomtown approached Majestic and Ed and said we'd like to partner and build a casino. Ed became the landlord, we built the building. We entered into a long-term lease agreement. Boomtown was born in Reno with one location, they went public, this was No. 2, they opened riverboats in New Orleans and Biloxi. This property was a problem for them. When it opened in 1996 it was really neither this nor that. It wasn't a tourist property because it was so close to the Strip and it really wasn't a local property because there was no one living around here. It was a challenge for them (to compete against the stateline casinos).

Meanwhile Hollywood Park comes in to buy Boomtown and ... we exercised an option we had in our deal with them to buy the property back from them. I was just an observer in all of this. I was probably the closest thing culturally to gaming that (the company) had. I was single at the time and volunteered to come out here and be the liaison to the casino. I sat in a corner and watched all the meetings go on with the Boomtown people. I became familiar enough with what was going on. When we took over the property formally in 1997 our first move was to hire a team that would actually run the property. The property was bleeding, losing a lot of money every day. I moved out here in January 1998. By October of 1998 we became profitable and never looked back. Then our mission became to acquire more land around the Silverton. At the time it was a 55-acre parcel and n ow it's in excess of 100 acres.

What do you like about the gaming business?

(Retail is) probably one of the most challenging types of developments you can do. They're tenant-driven developments. Without the tenants you don't build all those buildings and put "for lease" signs on them. You have to go make deals with every single person. Some of the shopping centers we did have 120 tenants in them. What's interesting to me about that side of the business and how it relates to the gaming business is that there's a huge challenge. It's dealmaking, it's real estate, it's negotiation. You make a deal and get excited and go on to the next deal. There's some creativity to it. You get to develop and design and merchandise. Shopping centers have gone from stale, long strips to food courts and entertainment districts and lifestyle centers and now condos above the lifestyle centers. It's an art more than a science. There's endless opportunity for creativity.

There's immediate gratification because you can do it and sit back and open the doors and the public either gives it a thumbs up or thumbs down. There's seldom mediocrity in this business. You either did really well or not well at all. You can merchandise the slot floor tomorrow and the next day change it. You have the ability to mold and remold. Steve Wynn has led the way for us all to look and say you can be creative and people will respond if you do the right thing. There aren't that many people with the vision to do it and I have Ed Roski behind me to support me financially. It's kind of a dream come true.

Do you think your management style is any different from the typical casino manager?

I don't know what the typical is because I've never worked for one. I'm told that it's different. In the development business the only way to really be successful is to do a lot of stuff, to multitask. You have to be working on a lot of different things in order for even one to be successful. It wasn't all about experience in Las Vegas. Some of it has to do with having a general passion for wanting to be profitable. I went out and hired a new team. It wasn't just youth but it was a youthful spirit. We put together a rag-tag team of directors who had never been directors before, made them all responsible for their areas. It's about letting great people really do their job. There are many things that aren't important to me in day-to-day operations that are very important to the general manager of many other properties. Little things still bother me but I don't check them every day. My general manager meetings occur about once every two months. That's completely different from the (companies) from which they come. It allows me to focus on things that are strategically more important.

How has the Silverton been performing since you added Bass Pro Shops, which was obviously a major step for the property?

The strategic purpose for bringing Bass Pro to the Silverton is to capture a percentage of their customer base. They have 75 million customers go through their stores every year and they only have 28 stores. Their typical store would draw between 3 and 4 million customers a year. Maybe half are tourists and half are locals. We found that if we could put Bass Pro in Las Vegas that would drive three or four times the volume we're getting. Before Bass Pro you came to Silverton to sleep here or gamble here but you didn't come out of curiousity, probably.

They absolutely are exceeding expectations in terms of store traffic. It's not uncommon on a weekend to see 20,000 to 25,000 people going into the store. There's really been no advertising and promotion (of the store) to speak of and it's still been incredibly successful. We're getting a huge capture rate (in the casino). It's about 50 percent tourists, 50 percent locals. We're getting (up to) 800 people an hour coming out of the store (into the casino). (Before Bass Pro) we probably had a headcount of about a million people per year.

Your boss has looked at acquiring other casinos. Are there any plans to expand in Nevada or beyond?

At the moment there's nothing that we're actively looking at. We always have to question why would we spend time and energy in another jurisdiction when we have the greatest opportunity sitting right here. We were looking at the Desert Inn when ITT still had it. It was land that kind of fit our development scheme and we thought of it as a long-term investment. We should have bought it. We thought it was overpriced at a million an acre.

The Las Vegas Hilton was probably the most notable. The Resort at Summerlin when it was in bankruptcy was another. In the middle of the desire to do acquisitions, 9-11 hit and put a stop to the Resort at Summerlin acqisition and the Maxim acquisition and turned back to the Silverton. The Silverton was not only successful but the housing market took off, with Anthem, Southern Highlands and Seven Hills. We couldn't have predicted that. We had some more reasonable growth projections in the Southwest and said, "We really ought to do something with this property. Let's stop looking at acquisitions."

The South Strip from Mandalay Bay down to St. Rose Parkway is being labeled the next hot development market for high-rise condos and casinos. What are your projections for the region?

We're looking at everything that goes on. I think you have to break the product into three, maybe four different types. There's condo-hotel, time share, high-rise residential and resort-type product. One that we've studied tremendously is the time share because of the amount of time share interest in the South Strip. There's about 4,500 time share units on South Las Vegas Boulevard today and maybe another 6,000 to 10,000 planned. The (time share) market in Las Vegas is underserved if you compare it to Florida, which is probably the closest model. If you look at what you get for your investment, which ranges from about $26,000 to $33,000 a week, there's great value for someone who's used to paying $250 or $300 a night on a weekend. In Vegas you can break it up into three or four day segments, you don't have to take the whole week. Spend $800 bucks a year an d you can come here the rest of your life. That's a pretty good deal.

I think that there's an untapped market and it's probably not interest-rate sensitive, because most people who buy time shares finance them through the time share company; they're not out there getting home equity loans and it's not a whole lot of money. I don't think you're going to see a slowdown in time shares and that you're going to see time share product with more and more of the Hiltons, Marriotts and Starwoods entering into the market and doing Class A product that, other than Hilton or Marriott, really don't exist. The South Strip is going to be a great area because the land prices are affordable enough so that the time share guys can get in and do it and the ones that are there today have been quite successful. The high rise (condos) are probably more a result of housing prices. There's a young, urban, affluent (consumer) who doesn't want the maintenance worries and wants amenities like a great pool. There's some sex appeal to that. You might even have a view of the Strip.

How many of these projects will get built, do you think?

That's hard to say. It should be demand-driven. Interest rates will probably have a great effect on how many of them actually get built. Housing is affordable at a certain price when interest rates are 5.5 percent. They go to 8 or 9 percent and things change. You'll probably have rising interest rates and decreasing demand for high-rise product from a local standpoint. What I don't know is how many people from out of town will continue buying the Turnberry-type product.

You just finished a $100 million expansion and are under way with another similarly priced expansion. How is that going?

We're going as fast as we can. We undersized and didn't plan for our extraordinary success well enough. Had we had a crystal ball we probably would have built it last year and not been working on it as we speak. We would hope to be under construction in the first or second quarter of next year. There are some things that are going to start sooner. We have a $7 million buffet (upgrade) that goes under construction in mid-July. We're expanding the steakhouse and (our 24-hour cafe) -- those are all happening this summer. Some of that is just demand from Bass Pro. We can't feed everybody who comes into the building, and keeping them on property is our No. 1 priority.

We'll probably invest $15 million in food and beverage this year alone. We're working on the $80 million hotel tower and parking garage which will start early next year and will take about 15 months to build. We are putting $5 million into a pool and ampitheater project that will also include a 15,000 square-foot spa -- a kind of fusion of Mandalay Bay, Hard Rock and Green Valley Ranch. July 16 the Nevada Department of Transportation starts on the widening of the overpass (at Blue Diamond Road and Interstate 15). That will be a 14- to 15-month project and will be a major overpass like Flamingo and Tropicana. In August, we will start our own project to rerout Industrial Road around the property, at our expense. That's about a seven-month project. That will solve our infrastructure issues, including a drainage problem, and allow us to pursue our resort master plan.

You've talked about building up to two additional casinos on site. Is this to meet demand from residents today or are you growing to meet future demand that's not here yet?

We're really not building this master plan for locals. It will have a great local appeal to it because of the 30 to 40 restaurants that will be built around a water feature. It's really being built as a resort destination like a Lake Las Vegas. The difference is that we're not 30 minutes outside of Las Vegas. We're three minutes from Mandalay Bay and everyone who comes from Southern California will drive by the property. I don't have to reach out to market to them. They're going to look at a suburb and resort enclave here and choose from five to six hotels -- some big, some boutique -- time shares, condominium-hotels and the Silverton. There's going to be all these different products here. It's probably not unlike what MGM Mirage is doing with CityCenter on the Strip but on a lesser scale.

Much of your business at the Silverton is still locals. What's the mix now?

It used to be 70 to 75 percent locals. Now it's about half and half. We just completed a residential tracking study in this Southwest quadrant. The population of about 115,000 to 120,000 people has doubled in four years. If we continue at the pace that we've seen in the last three to four years, there will be another 100,000 people who aren't here today. But we're really not building this as a locals property. We'll have 4,000 to 5,000 rooms here.

Even with all of the new attractions and resorts planned, how do you think the Silverton will be able to compete with the Strip?

Because of the frequency of visits from the West Coast, there's a point at which, on your 15th visit out here, you no longer need or want to travel to three or four casinos during each trip. You've already seen Wynn. You've already done Venetian. They're no longer enamored by all the buzz of the place. They're no longer enamored by traveling to the 54th floor and walking a mile and half to your room. They only got there on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. They only have about 40 hours to play with and they want to play. They just spent five hours in their car. I think you've seen that in the success of (off-Strip casinos like) the Orleans and the Palms.

People want to stay here and they're still going to the Strip. We shuttle them to the Strip. But they really want to come back to their country club of choice. If we had 600 rooms today we'd be full. Michael Gaughan is building 1,450 (at the nearby South Coast resort). I assume he believes he can offer a product that is competitive and different and probably a bit more value-driven than paying full price at one of the Strip properties. Green Valley Ranch has an average daily rate of at least $200, I believe. They had about 250 people milling about the pool on a Saturday and they all chose not to stay at one of the larger properties. I think Californians get tired of the rat race of the traditional property. They like to go clubbing (on the Strip) and maybe meet friends there but at the end of the day can settle back into their resort just three minutes from the action.

What do you make of competition from tribal casinos in California? It appears that early concerns might have been overblown.

There's been pretty rapid growth in the last couple of years and a lot of gaming dollars going to tribal casinos. They're busy places. It's hard to say if that $5 billion wasn't spent in California how much of it would come to Vegas. It has to have had some impact on us. It seems that it has on Reno and Laughlin and possibly downtown. I've been impressed with the scale of the casinos over there. They're getting better and better but it's still not Las Vegas. It's still not the endless opportunity to go out and explore. Even for Southern Californians, they may get tired of all of this but they still want to be close to it. It's not like you're out in the middle of nowhere like in an Indian casino.

Congestion remains a problem along I-15, which is your main lifeline for customers. Is this a major concern?

I drive it 10 or 12 times a year because I have a place in Newport Beach and have to fight the traffic. Anytime a three or four hour trip turns into six hours it's a problem. People seem to be resilient to it. They don't like it. But especially with the post 9-11 environment, it beats going through some of the hassles of flying over even though prices are probably a third of what they used to be. California and Nevada have been working on I-15 since I moved here. I've been watching construction constantly for eight or nine years and at this pace they'll be working on it another 15 years. There are great segments (of the highway) and there are places where it's two lanes and it's ridiculous. What I don't know politically is the motivation for California to continue to fund a desert highway that primarily benefits Nevada. I often wonder how many CEOs of major publicly traded casinos make that drive 10 times a year and maybe they'd put more emphasis at the state level to invest more money into I-15. Most of them are flying back and forth, probably.

Do you think Las Vegas will ever attract a professional sports franchise?

Some type of professional sports team is definitely in the realm of possibility. I'm not sure what exactly it will be. Historically it seems that the teams that have been here have not been successful or profitable. Maybe the timing was bad, maybe the timing's right now. I believe there will be some type of professional team here. I'm not certain it's going to be a dream scenario. I think it would have to be supported by the gaming industry and the state.

Have you been involved in any of the recent efforts to attract a team?

Years ago we thought about it. We got here and we had just finished Staples (Center) and there was some interest. But no, we're not involved in any of that.

Is the company interested in exploring any contracts with tribal casinos?

It's very difficult and time consuming. There are a lot of tribes out there from single member tribes to 200 and 300 members that would have a desire to be in the business but don't have land. We didn't want to go through that ... process with the (limited) amount of time Ed and I have. When you look at an aerial view of this property and see that you're parking RVs on land that is worth millions of dollars per acre when you can go vertical on it, it's really where our time should be spent.

Majestic Realty is primarily an industrial real estate developer. What are prospects for other types of development in Las Vegas?

We're partners with Thomas and Mack on the Beltway project, which is about 400 acres (of industrial buildings) on Decatur and I-215. I think we have a little over 5 million feet (of industrial space) on the ground in Las Vegas, all leased. Majestic is pushing ahead with another million square feet of (industrial) development over the next year or so. As a company, we've had great success with everything we've put on the ground here. What we don't have in Las Vegas is any retail or office. Thomas and Mack is doing the office product (on the Beltway project) because they're really good at it. We're really good at building big boxes. Our retail (division) has been looking around for opportunities in Las Vegas for a while. We may do some retail at the Decatur property, we may do some other stuff.

Retail stores tend to do better in Las Vegas than in other major cities. What's preventing the company from pursuing retail here?

It's super competitive. Residential developers are paying the same or more for land than what we would normally pay as a retail developer. It used to be that residential guys were paying $3 to $4 bucks a foot, industrial was paying $4 to $7 and retail comes in at $10, $11 and $12. Now residential is paying $10, $11 and $12 and retail is $15, $18 and $19. You have to generate sales that are in excess of a normal store volume in a market that might be green. You pay above market rent, only to get in there to wait on the growth. Some guys have gotten really good at it but most of them are developing the land as part of a master plan. Even though the sales are very strong for most of the retailers here, the land prices are driving them to the point where there's nowhere for them to go. Where they want to go sometimes you can't go because of zoning and other re strictions. Is there opportunity? Absolutely. (The I-15 interchange at Blue Diamond Road) is completely underserved with retail. There's one grocery store serving literally 120,000 people. There should be six of them out there. There should be a Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot but there's no place for them to really land. They'd all love to be here on this site but that's not the highest and best use for the property.

Is Majestic mainly focusing on the Southwest or is the company looking elsewhere for commercial development?

Our industrial group is looking everyhwere. Land prices are so challenging and there's no way they can compete with the residential developers and the retail developer. The retail can't compete with the gaming. That really stifles industrial development. What it does is pushes you further out to places like the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and even north of there. You could build a project but who in the world wants to have their office 18 miles north of Las Vegas? If land prices correct there may be some opportunity or maybe some BLM auctions or infill parcels that will allow more industrial to occur and possibly retail as well.