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* Closings to begin in January
* CityCenter to begin phased opening in December
(Adds analyst comment, company comment, background, byline)
By Deena Beasley
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Prices for condominiums at CityCenter, the $8.5 billion Las Vegas Strip complex being built by partners MGM Mirage and Dubai World, will be reduced by 30 percent, the developers said Monday.
The price cut will be offered to existing buyers of units at CityCenter's Mandarin Oriental, Veer Towers and Vdara Condo Hotel. The towers include a total of 2,400 condominium units.
"Nobody would close at the old prices," said Sanford Bernstein analyst Janet Brashear. "They are between a rock and a hard place ... they want to sell the units, but these are some of their best customers."
The units, originally priced from $500,00 into the millions, came on the market in early 2007 -- when the real estate market was still booming and big gamblers and Vegas executives were willing to place deposits on top-dollar units in the planned luxury CityCenter towers.
MGM originally expected to take in $2.6 billion from the condo sales. The company has collected about $300 million in deposits on 1,300 units, but those buyers have since balked at following through on the sales.
"We believe that in this economic climate this price reduction is an appropriate step to take on behalf of our buyers so as to provide them greater flexibility in closing on their residences," Bobby Baldwin, president and chief executive of CityCenter, said in a statement.
The big question, according to Brashear, is whether the pending condo buyers "fundamentally" still want the units. "It will depend their own financial situation," she said.
MGM spokesman Alan Feldman said "it is still to be determined" whether MGM, which has been struggling to cut its own debt load, will be offering financing to buyers of the CityCenter condominiums.
The company said it expects closings to begin in January with Mandarin Oriental buyers, in February for Veer Towers and in March for the Vdara condos.
The 67-acre complex of casinos, hotels, condominiums and shops will begin a phased opening on the Las Vegas Strip in December.
Shares of MGM, which rose 4.3 percent to close at $11.54 on the New York Stock Exchange, were little changed at $11.57 after hours.
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