Heidi Moffitt and Neil Moffitt arrive at Omnia on Saturday, March 14, 2015, in Caesars Palace.
Maybe the best comparison is an auto design company who has developed a groundbreaking exotic vehicle for Ford, and, a short while later, another for General Motors.
Hakkasan Group, with Neil Moffitt at the throttle, is such a company. Two years ago, the nightclub giant opened Hakkasan at MGM Grand, and it fast became a pacesetter in a field of fleet nightclub competitors.
Over the weekend, Omnia opened at Caesars Palace, showing off its high-performance horsepower in a four-night spree as Justin Bieber celebrated his belated 21st birthday and several thousand partiers flooded the club.
Omnia, you might have heard of. It’s the former Pure nightclub, largely and rightfully credited with igniting the mega-club boom in Las Vegas when it opened in 2004.
Hakkasan Group assumed operations of the space when it bought Angel Management Group in February 2014 and has since bought out The Light Group, giving Hakkasan a stronghold on nightlife business in Las Vegas — not to mention its holdings across the country and internationally.
The company’s two largest assets, which is business speak for “massive nightclubs,” are now Hakkasan and Omnia. They are similar in grandeur but not in design; alike in their capacity to draw 6,000 people a night but not alike in the decor or in their respective use of space.
“When you look at design, it’s all a matter of conjecture and opinion, but I have felt it would be very difficult for us to eclipse our success at Hakkasan,” Moffitt, Hakkasan Group’s CEO, said in an interview after Thursday’s ribbon-cutting at the club’s entrance.
“It was a unique piece of property and opened at a unique time. When we embarked on this project, one of the challenges was not how to compete with ourselves, but how to complement what we already have.”
Which is a massive amount of space, 75,000 square feet at Omnia (double the size of Pure, as the Caesars old poker room has been gobbled up to create the Heart of Omnia VIP lounge); and 80,000 square feet at Hakkasan.
Competing companies, of course, own these remarkably large profit centers, with MGM Grand operated by MGM Resorts and Caesars Palace by Caesars Entertainment.
How does a single operator of such grand scope keep both companies satisfied without concerns of competition creeping in?
“We’ve always been very good at that, very good at insulating and being correct when it comes to gaming companies, whether it is Caesars Entertainment or MGM Resorts.
“My argument would be, just like I think that nightclub-goers would go to more than one nightclub during a visit to Las Vegas, gamers don’t sit in one casino for four days and never leave.
“I believe what we do is a benefit for both parties in that we bridge the gap whilst having to remain very respectful and ethical along the way. I think both MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment have a high level of comfort in how we treat these sensitive situations.”
Tiesto and Hakkasan Group CEO Neil Moffitt attend Night 3 of Hakkasan's first-anniversary celebrations Saturday, April 26, 2014, at MGM Grand.
Caesars Palace President Gary Selesner stood next to Moffitt as the two sliced the ribbon to open Omnia.
“We’ve known Neil and his team for a long time, as they’ve run Pure here, and we have developed a lot of respect for their integrity. They are terrific operators,” Selesner said. “They’ve always taken a leadership role in terms of the scrutiny nightclubs came under a few years back.
“Pure, under Neil and his team’s leadership, had a flawless record, and we have a lot of respect for that. So, now we move into a world where they will be serving multiple masters, and I believe that same integrity they’ve displayed in the past will come through here.”
Omnia is now Hakkasan Group’s “flagship,” at least in Selesner’s view.
“They owe it not only to us to operate it at the highest standard possible, they owe it to themselves and their owners,” he said. “I have no doubt they will manage to walk the line in a professional way, and both companies will benefit from their nightlife leadership.”
As plans were being forged for the club’s redesign and relaunch, there was a sentiment among officials from Hakkasan Group and Caesars Entertainment to keep the name as Pure. That’s a fine name for a club and one that does hold a high measure of brand recognition.
But that recognition was not uniformly positive. In February 2008, the club was raided by IRS agents investigating illegal “entry fee” sharing at the club, finding that such revenue collected at the door was shared by management and not reported to the IRS.
“We did, definitely, consider keeping the name, but I felt at the time that this was going to be so different from what Pure was that we needed to name it something unique,” Moffitt said. “And for as many fantastic things that came with Pure at the right time, in ’04, ’05 and ’06, I felt there was also some negativity around the name, and I felt it was time to completely clear the decks. There would be no correlation from Pure that was, and Pure that is, which is now Omnia.
“Pure kicked the door down for nightlife in Las Vegas, but there is a whole new market today, and what you’ll see inside doesn’t reflect Pure in any way. You look around and you struggle to find where Pure existed. … A new name and new construction creates new interest in the hotel.”
The Hakkasan Group is not finished at Caesars Palace, either.
“We feel so strongly about this relationship that we are about to open, on May 15, the Vista Lounge, which will replace the Shadow Bar,” Selesner said. “We have worked hand-in-hand to develop an exciting new concept for that and hired them to operate that for us. We have a lot of confidence in their ability to do a great job.”
Moffitt’s years in the hospitality business tell him that the nightclub experience in Las Vegas is not a singular experience. Similar to how tourists bounce from hotel to hotel, club-goers investigate more than one venue in a single trip.
“What we wanted to try to do is give the customer who comes to us a chance to see variety,” he said. “Anyone who thinks a customer comes to Las Vegas to see one nightclub and only that nightclub on a visit to Las Vegas is being ignorant. … I never wanted to see one as less than the other.”
The high volume of customers spending time and money at Hakkasan and Omnia will obviously lift their respective resort companies. But the big winner will be Hakkasan Group.
“What I say of Omnia now is it’s one of the best nightlife destinations you will find,” he said. “And I genuinely believe Hakkasan Group now has the two best nightclubs in the world. In a year or two, we will be able to judge how they stand on their own.”
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.
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