Vegas Hopes CityCenter Gamble Pays Off
NGUYEN: Oh yes. It's called CityCenter, and this week it officially opened for business on the Vegas Strip, creating much- needed jobs. We are talking thousands of them. I recently caught up with a few job seekers who took a gamble on CityCenter, and why.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, you're from Australia, welcome. I mean it, welcome.</s>NGUYEN (voice over): After five years in the making, CityCenter is now a welcoming site to thousands, not just to tourists, but employees like security guard Delores Witherspoon. She was laid in February and ended up losing her home.</s>DELORES WITHERSPOON, CITYCENTER SECURITY GUARD: I needed a job so bad. I needed job like somebody looking for water and they was in the desert. That's how bad I need it.</s>NGUYEN: And she wasn't alone; Patrick Fuchs also lost his job and couldn't afford to pay his mortgage.</s>PATRICK FUCHS, CITYCENTER EMPLOYEE: I lost two homes, actually. I lost -- I lost my house and my parents' house. Both my parents passed away last year and I was stuck with my house. And then they passed away, and then I had their house, and -- so the family home and my home, both gone.</s>NGUYEN: That was when he hit rock bottom.</s>FUCHS: I went into a state of depression. I just shut down, I didn't talk to anybody. I didn't sleep. I was up for like weeks, months. I was at a point I didn't leave my house. I was like Howard Hughes. You know, I didn't cut my hair, I didn't bathe. I didn't eat (ph) anything. I was so depressed.</s>NGUYEN: It's these stories that make the opening of the newest addition to the Las Vegas Strip that much more important to the man behind CityCenter. But MGM Mirage Chairman and CEO Jim Murren faced his own challenges getting the $8.5 billion project funded nearly going bankrupt waiting for loans.</s>MURREN: When we went to the banks, we said, 'Give us the damn money.' You know, we'll finish this. We've got our money in. We'll get our partners' money in. We'll make sure that you get your money back. We're not asking for a handout. There was no government bailout here. There was -- just give us the money you promised us. We're going to employ these 12,000 people. You're going to make money, banks; we're going to make money as -as an enterprise, and we're going to help a community.</s>NGUYEN: This spring, the banks came through. And for a community that has a 13 percent unemployment rate and leads the nation in foreclosures, the 12,000 job CityCenter has created ...</s>WITHERSPOON: How you all doing over there?</s>NGUYEN: ...couldn't have come at a better time.</s>WITHERSPOON: It was like a dream come true. I -- I just felt blessed.</s>MURREN: Seeing smiles on these employees' faces. Seeing, you know, the energy, the excitement that they have is the best possible reward.</s>NGUYEN: And for Murren, watching his vision finally come to fruition has eased some of the pressure from what's been called a billion-dollar bet.</s>MURREN: So the pressure level is vastly less than it was earlier this year. When we last met, we're wondering if the -- will the project be finished? Can we keep the jobs going? Can we open this project? And of course, we've -we've answered all of those questions.</s>NGUYEN: Now the question is: Can this gamble on CityCenter create the economic boost that Las Vegas desperately needs?</s>NGUYEN: To give you an idea of how many people are indeed in need of jobs, 170,000 applies for those 12,000 jobs. And when you hear someone is offering 12,000 jobs, that is a whole lot. But then to hear how many people applied for those...</s>MARCIANO: Right.</s>NGUYEN: ...just gives you an indication of, you know, the fact that we are still in this recession, and -- and people are in desperate need at this point. But to give you another indication of how difficult times could still be, even after the opening of CityCenter and all of this, tourism down 6 percent this year. The convention and business -- convention business dropping almost a third. So it may be a little while before...</s>MARCIANO: Yes, after they build this massive structure that they...</s>NGUYEN: Vegas -- yes, sees the return that it's hoping.</s>MARCIANO: Well, hopefully -- they build it, they will come, eventually.</s>NGUYEN: Yes, that kind of mentality. Eventually -- you know, it's -- we're all going to get out of this one way or the other, right?</s>MARCIANO: Very impressive. I mean, they -- they...</s>NGUYEN: We hope so.</s>MARCIANO: They certainly go all the way when they build things in Vegas.</s>NGUYEN: Yes, all in, right?</s>MARCIANO: Yes, exactly. Well, people stay up late in Vegas to do their thing, and...</s>NGUYEN: And some don't even sleep.</s>MARCIANO: Exactly. Well, lately our lawmakers burning the midnight oil as well.</s>NGUYEN: That's true.</s>MARCIANO: Working late into the night and early tomorrow morning, also on health-care reform legislation.</s>NGUYEN: Yes, the bill finally got the support it needs. So what was taken out of it? We're going to take a look at that in the next hour of CNN SUNDAY MORNING.