Q: What are your plans for the urban village?

A: The first phase of the $4 billion Project CityCenter will comprise 66 acres, which is about the size of three major New York City landmarks put together: Rockefeller Center, SoHo, and Times Square. We'll be developing 18 million square feet of space, including a 4,000-room hotel/casino, three 400-room boutique hotels, 550,000 square feet of retail shops, dining and entertainment, and 1,650 units of luxury condominiums, hotel/condos, and private residence clubs. As ambitious as that is, we think it will be just the first of many such projects. It will completely change the way people think about development in Las Vegas. For CityCenter, we will solicit the expertise of the world's best urban planners, architects, and designers, and also the best partners in hospitality and retail space. CityCenter's development will be managed by Bobby Baldwin, President & CEO of Mirage Resorts. Bobby is doing a terrific job on this historic endeavor.

Q: How did Mandalay's other assets figure into your plans?

A: One important asset was the 1.8-million-square-foot Mandalay Bay Convention Center. It's not only huge, but it's also state-of-the-art. With our room base and food and beverage offerings, the combined company can now attract national and international conventions and conferences. We have almost 3-million square- feet of public space meeting and conference rooms, ballrooms, and convention centers, which puts us at the forefront of the convention business in the U.S. Their room base was another big plus. It was more economically attractive to acquire, rather than build, rooms in today's expensive construction market. They also controlled a number of restaurants and retail shops which we saw opportunities to increase non-gaming revenue by making improvements there.