The move is expected to be a catalyst in transforming property owned by Harrah's in the vicinity of Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard into a major community centerpiece. Two of Harrah's resorts in that area are the Flamingo and Harrah's Las Vegas, overseen by Regional President Don Marrandino, a longtime Las Vegas resort executive who has worked for Station Casinos, Wynn Resorts Ltd. and the Hard Rock Hotel in his career.

At the Hard Rock, Marrandino, who joined Harrah's in 2003, pioneered Gen-X marketing, establishing nightclubs, creating celebrity chef restaurants and developing an entertainment venue that hosted the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Aerosmith.

Marrandino talked with In Business Las Vegas about a major makeover at the Flamingo and the future of Harrah's and Las Vegas.

Question: You've had quite a career, working for Station Casinos, Steve Wynn, the Hard Rock Hotel, at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe and now at the Flamingo. What were some of the different things you learned about the gaming industry at these different properties?

Answer: The first experience, I would say, I had the opportunity to work with the best entrepreneurs the gaming industry had prior to Harrah's. I started working with Tony Marnell for six years at the Rio. He designed and built everything at the Rio and it turned out to be what the future of Las Vegas would become. With Tony, we had a group of guys that worked together really well. We've all spread our wings since then. I went to Station when it was a very small company and worked with Frank Fertitta and Blake Sartini, two really great entrepreneurial guys. With them, we built a pretty impressive company that is successful today. Then, because I'm a music guy, the Hard Rock beckoned and I became a COO (chief operating officer) working for Peter Morton. We turned a hamburger stand in London, England, into a $777 million business. That's what they sold the Hard Rock Hotel for. I really learned a lot about branding and it taught me one thing: "Life doesn't suck when you're strong." That was his quote and I always think about that. Then, when Mr. Wynn called, you don't say no when Mr. Wynn calls. When I went there, I saw the best designer and dreamer first hand. It was amazing, but it wasn't a good fit for me, so I left and joined Harrah's, which is interesting because all those entrepreneurs have really smart companies and I felt that I learned from those really interesting groups of people and applied that within a corporate environment. Harrah's is the largest gaming company and obviously, you can't have a lot of entrepreneurs within a giant company. It wouldn't work.

But Harrah's has great marketers.

Harrah's has the most scientific marketing and I think I bring an element to the company that complements that. With Harrah's Las Vegas and the Flamingo, we have great groups of people and I think if there's one thing that I've been able to get into people is that it's OK to be entrepreneurial and think differently and not fear failure.

How does the Flamingo fit in the Harrah's Entertainment hierarchy?

I think the Flamingo, purchased in the Caesars Entertainment deal a little over two years ago fits because it's one of the larger-room hotels with more than 3,500 rooms. It sits at one of the most strategic locations in Las Vegas, right across from Caesars Palace. And then, we have Bally's, Paris and Harrah's and we all kind of work together really well. So we've got a lot of real estate. With what could potentially happen with the land Harrah's owns east of the Strip, I think the Flamingo is a really big player.

Harrah’s Entertainment owns the Flamingo, Bally’s and Paris. Bally’s, Paris and the Barbary Coast are seen refl ected in the glass of a skywalk in this photo. Staff File Photo

What we've been able to do is renovate 1,100 rooms - the 1,100 Go Rooms where we're sitting today. Harrah's gave us the entrepreneurial way to go about it. We designed a very different room than most people and we've won some really prestigious awards with these rooms. So instead of having a dormitory, we're creating a vibe at the Flamingo. We have these rooms, we have the European pool, we have Toni Braxton and have her picture all over the front of the building and we're really trying to change the feel of the place. Thankfully, it's been very successful.

The Flamingo is one of Harrah's largest assets and certainly one of its most historic. Do you feel the property gets the respect it deserves from the company and from the public?

I think you get respect in one way. Obviously, in a company, the financial performance is the only scoreboard. And right now, if you look up at the scoreboard, we're doing remarkably well, so the company likes properties that do well. From the public, I think the perception is that this was an old, tired building, but we're slowly but surely fixing it up, making it nice, getting a vibe to it. In a couple of quarters thus far, we've had the biggest improvement in the company from a customer-service standpoint. So our financial performance has been very good and our customer service has been very good.

But how do you change the perception?

One thing we've done remarkably well is to learn through these entrepreneurs about having a great public-relations team that goes out and tells the world about this. A lot of people do great things, but don't tell anybody, but the first person I call when something's up is not my vice president of food and beverage or not the vice president of the hotel, but my director of PR and I ask, "How can we get this out there?" How do we say, "Hey, these rooms are really cool." Let's talk about it. And people really do want to talk about it because they're different. We do a little music thing and when people check in, they hear me talking to people about things they can't get at any other hotel. So we talk about that. We talk about the European pool. We talk about the "X" show. Sunset Thomas appeared in that, so we talked about it. Anything that we can talk about that is fun and people hear about and people enjoy reading about cool things. I think if you do things just a little bit different than most people, they scratch their heads and say, "I wish I had thought of that," and that's how you win.

How elaborate has the room makeover been?

We bulldozed every floor. We bulldozed it and ran new electric, added new Internet capabilities and wireless. We put in electronic shades and killer sound systems. Nobody's got a sub-woofer as big as the one you're looking at on the floor over there. We were concerned up front that it would be loud to the person next door, so we put extra insulation in. But being a rock-and-roll guy, I just figured that they'd just turn their music up to balance it out. But we've had very few complaints.

What other big things are on the horizon for the Flamingo?

We continue to work on a master plan. At the appropriate time, our company will come out with it. We're working on upgrading each of our restaurants. We're upgrading the casino constantly. We're in the process of uniforming our employees to fit the image and vibe we're trying to project. It's just constant. Once we got one-third of our rooms upgraded, we were able to charge more for our rooms and that gets us a better customer. It's been a good experience.

How important was it to Harrah's and your property to get a deal signed with the Culinary Union?

I think we're very proud that we have reached an agreement. I think the union was very fair with us and we were very fair with the union. I think we have a really good relationship. Hopefully, the employees appreciate that, and I think they do. Marilyn Winn, our president of Bally's, Paris and the Rio, headed up our negotiations with the Culinary and they got it done very quickly. They got a nice increase and we put it behind us. On the other hand, we demand excellence in service. We really push, but it's a two-way street. It's a hell of a lot easier to work together than to work against each other.

How important was the signing of Toni Braxton to the property? What's the long-term plan for her?

Toni Braxton has been just a breath of fresh air for the Flamingo. About a year and a half ago, her manager came into my office and said, "Hey, have you thought about Toni Braxton?" And I said I had just remembered her from the VH1 Awards and her famous dress and the great hits in the '90s and I thought, well, this is a beautiful entertainer that is still very current. We took a chance, but it's paid off tremendously and in fact we've extended her for the second time. A few days ago, we celebrated her one-year anniversary. The show's been an amazing success for us and we couldn't be happier with Toni. She gives that fresh and unexpected feel that the Flamingo is trying to transform into and we've just been thrilled with the results.

You obviously made some great connections with entertainers during your Hard Rock days. Are there other acts you're pursuing for the Flamingo or for Harrah's?

We always listen. In fact, just the other day, somebody called and said, "Hey, the 'Love' show (at the Mirage) has been such a great success, have you ever thought about - and I won't mention the name of the band - but this person said they had connections to the someone who had the rights to this song. So Scott Schecter and Suzanne Trout and Deanna Pettit and Laura Ishum, our group of entertainment people said, "Wow, what do you think of it?" and it was a pretty interesting call. The good news is that when you know a lot of entertainers, you get a lot of calls because people say, "You've got to call Don in Las Vegas." So it's a fun thing and it's kind of how the Toni thing came about. You never know what's going to happen in a large company, but for now we're very happy with Toni and we have six more months to go and hopefully in six months, I'll say we've extended her again. Wouldn't that be nice? It certainly would be cost-effective because on the front of the building, we have her picture, 150 by 450 feet. Every time I sign the contract I say, "Boy, that's great, we don't have to take it down."

You've used some celebrity connections in some of your retail offerings. How has that helped the company?

We have two interesting partnerships with Toby Keith and Jimmy Buffet. It's funny, I approached Toby several years ago after he wrote the song "I Love This Bar," and I called him one day and said, "I know you've probably thought about this, but we ought to do a restaurant, and not just one where you put guitars on the wall," and he said, "OK, great," and Tom Jenkin and the Harrah's group said, "Let's do it," and he built a location that has done spectacularly. When Toby comes to town, he hangs out there, it's his place and his boys go there and have a great time and it's a really fun place for country music. At the Flamingo, we have Margaritaville, which is Jimmy Buffet's dream. It's been just amazing. It's the highest grossing restaurant in the country. It does north of $40 million in gross sales in its partnership with the Flamingo. We love the Margaritaville concept here. It's great, it fits our vibe. If you look at the room, you can close your eyes and say you're in Margaritaville somewhere and have a great time.

Does Jimmy Buffet hang out there?

He's been here and he's going to be here in concert on two weekends in October, so he'll certainly be here. I've had the pleasure of meeting him on a couple of occasions and he's a down-to-earth guy and we've really enjoyed our partnership with him.

Harrah's has been pretty close to the vest about its future plans, but we've heard bits and pieces about the east side of the Strip becoming the new center of the Harrah's empire? How does the Flamingo fit into the game plan?

With the merger, our chairman, Mr. (Gary) Loveman is working feverishly to figure out the best use of all of the properties and the land that they have. There hasn't been a formal filing about what exactly we're going to do and I expect Mr. Loveman and his gang think they have the right answer. I know there's really a lot of great plans out there. There's really nothing I can say today except that we're operating the properties we have to the best of our ability. (Note: This interview was conducted before Harrah's announced plans for a 20,000-seat arena southeast of the Flamingo.)

Obviously, the Flamingo is in the center of all that.

You couldn't get a better location in the universe than the corner of Flamingo and Las Vegas Boulevard and we're very happy with the location and how it works and it's all good.

How do you think Harrah's will change when it becomes a privately held company?

I don't think it will change much. The same core values are still here. The company's built on great marketing and great customer service and the new owners have said they've hired the management team and Mr. Loveman and Tom Jenkin to continue to do what they do. Instead of getting great returns for the shareholders, they'll get great returns for the new company. I think when people or companies try to change who they are, that's when they make mistakes. So I believe we'll keep the core business strategies in place and continue to prosper with our great marketing and great customer service, great value, great data base. Our major brands will still be extremely important to us. I don't expect the outside world will see any difference. Except you can't see it on the New York Stock Exchange after the deal is done.

What's your take on the massive growth anticipated in Las Vegas over the next five to 10 years? Will the Flamingo be able to endure with so many new properties on the horizon or will it be knocked down the resort pecking order?

We're investing lots of money in our new hotel rooms. If you were to build a new 3,600-room casino resort today, I would imagine the number (cost) would be in the billions to build that. Our structure is still in great-enough shape to do brand-new rooms, brand-new plumbing, brand-new everything. We've done about a third of our inventory to make it great. Certainly for the foreseeable future, the Flamingo will continue to be here. We're getting nice room rates for it, but it's not going to compete with CityCenter, Bellagio or Wynn. The Flamingo is going to compete in the mid-market and maybe the mid-price value oriented, but bringing up the level of service to the higher-end value markets. If I had a crystal ball, I'd say in the next five to seven years, the Flamingo is here and I also think the Flamingo would be the last one standing. It speaks to being still relevant, from 1946 through today. It's still here and it's one of the greatest names in gaming ever with the legendary Bugsy (Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel) and everything else and the kind of sexiness of the Las Vegas yesteryear.

Obviously, the mid-market is important to Harrah's because they're in just about every category.

If you look at every hotel that's opening right now or proposed to open, they're all at the higher end. I think that's great, but we have a great niche in the two properties I'm responsible for, Harrah's and the Flamingo, that we really concentrate on the mid-market. We give the mid-market customers a top-market experience from the quality standpoint, from the service standpoint and from the food standpoint and a great room product. But we're not charging them $350 or $400 for our rooms. Most nights, it's like $120-$150. I think there are a lot of people in America who like to visit Las Vegas that feel comfortable paying that, so that's our niche.

What do you think is the biggest problem facing Las Vegas in the next five to 10 years?

Everybody says the same thing, they say transportation, and there are a lot of smart people. Wouldn't it be great if the (Las Vegas) Monorail went to the airport? It would take away some of the congestion and smog and long waits for cabs. I think at the airport it takes, on average, about 40 minutes to get a cab. But one of the things I've considered is that if you look at the beverage and food prices, they've gone really high and I hope we don't price ourselves out of it. The nightclub business, certainly in the last decade, has taken off as a very relevant part of the business plan. I continue to see things in entertainment that keep popping up to make people say, "Wow, it's a great experience." I don't think, as a city, that we can underestimate the value of customer service. If we start taking that for granted, from the airport, to the cab, to the front desk, to the maid, to the whatever, from the aspect of customer service, I think we could be in trouble that way.

Is there something you do to reinforce good customer service?

One of the great things about Harrah's is we pay our people bonuses. It's up to $200 every quarter, based upon their guest-service scores. It's a program implemented by Mr. Loveman. Every day, our employees know that in 90 days, if we do well - and scores are posted everywhere - they can get a $200 check, for both union and non-union employees. There's nothing that makes me happier. In fact, there are celebrations on the days we hand out the checks. When your have 4,000 employees like we havehere and 4,000 at Harrah's, that's a lot of money that we're giving out, and we're really happy when we can give our employees that extra $200 to pay their gas bill or their car payment. I don't care who you are, if somebody says, "I'm going to pay your gas bill this month," you're going to take it, right? So I think it's a great thing and an incentive.

You talked a little about traffic gridlock problems on the Strip. Are there any other solutions?

I saw a presentation from the (Regional Transportation Commission) and I don't know how far away (the solution) is, but we looked at a new system that utilizes the center of the Strip. I don't know if that's the solution, but my opinion is something has to happen on the center of the Strip to alleviate traffic. As more destinations are built north of Mandalay Bay, and even to the south, we don't have the walkability we once had. I sense that in the next decade or so, there needs to be something that moves people. The monorail is an underutilized asset for this town and struggling, but I'll tell you that when I go to the MGM (Grand) for a concert, I don't drive my car, I just jump on the monorail. It's a great experience. I think, as a city, we need to get behind it for it to be successful.

What competition should Las Vegas be most worried about?

I don't think anybody can match us for fun and sizzle. I think the ad campaign for Las Vegas does a great job for us. They keep reinventing the ads. But we can't be arrogant and say that you can't get in a great restaurant, you can't get in a nightclub. If people walk away and can't get in anywhere, they're not having much fun in line. I think as a destination, we have to be cognizant that we can't put the velvet rope up and say you can't come in. That's something that could hurt us in the long run.

The Flamingo property is right in the center of the Las Vegas Monorail route. How much has it helped the property and what do you think it needs to do to attract more riders?

For the Flamingo and Harrah's, we get up to a couple thousand people a day passing through the property so that's a great thing. When we have big conventions in town, we encourage the people to take the monorail to the convention center instead of a cab. From an environmental perspective and a traffic perspective, it's a great thing. It has a reputation of not doing well, but we need a lot of smart people to increase ridership because everybody says gridlock is a big problem in Las Vegas. Yet we have a system that's underutilized. Maybe it wasn't set up right, but I think certainly there's got to be something to a system that takes traffic out of here and makes it convenient. You know, if you go to a convention in Chicago, you've got to get a cab. Here, you can walk out and be at the Convention Center from where we're sitting in eight minutes. That's not a bad thing for a couple of bucks. It's a very important, underutilized asset in this city.

And certainly an extension to the airport would help.

One man's opinion is that that needs to happen. If we had people come here for three days and they had to wait 40 minutes to get a cab to get to their place, that's an hour of shopping, dining, playing, whatever that we don't get. An effective system would get people to their hotel sooner. And it's probably an hour going the other way too.

If the monorail fails, how would that affect the Flamingo?

Obviously, a thousand people walk into your place each day, so it would hurt. People are going to continue to walk north or south on the Strip, but they may walk by you. Obviously, it's a nice amenity for our guests.

Harrah's is one of the leaders in building awareness on problem gambling. What does the Flamingo or you personally do to back this up?

A long time ago, (former Harrah's chief executive) Phil Satre really championed the cause that Gary Loveman took after him that we're going to be responsible gamers and not just talk it, but walk it. If we made a decision for profit that went against our company's ethic, we'd not be in good light with the industry, so we take it very seriously. We train our people. When you see these signs, here's what you need to look for. We have people on each shift who are experts at it. We feel we're very responsible in the community. The program has won many awards.