A really fantastic looking building what we could see of it.
1. With the completion of Building B, the first two buildings at World Market Center alone will total 2.9 million square feet making World Market Center larger than the Empire State Building, which is a mere 2.2 million square feet.
2. The 50,000 yards of concrete used for Building B would pave a three-foot wide sidewalk from Las Vegas to Disneyland.
3. More than 85 Ironworkers and 13,000 tons of steel were used to erect Building B. There is enough steel in Building B to manufacture a new refrigerator for every household in the city of San Francisco
4. Ashley Furniture has the largest showroom among approximately 300 permanent showrooms in Building B. At 86,000 square feet Ashley's space is as large as the interior showroom of a typical Home Depot store.
5. With the opening of the second building, 13 of the Top 25 U.S. furniture manufacturers and importers will be exhibiting at Las Vegas Market.
6. Sky bridges that connect Building A to Building B contain more than 240 panes of glass. Another 400 panes will connect the sky bridges of Building B to Building C. This is almost as many panes as one of the world's greatest landmarks ... The Louvre Pyramid in Paris designed by world-renowned architect I.M. Pei has a total of 673 panes of glass.
7. Totaling 350,000 square feet, currently the largest tent-structure anywhere in the U.S., the Pavilions lined up are equivalent to 7 football fields. Virtually all of the exhibiting companies in the Pavilions are moving in to permanent showrooms in Building B.
8. If we were to fill the second building floor to ceiling with standard-sized sofas, it would take approximately 259,373 sofas to fill Building B.
9. World Market Center's new 20,000 square foot restaurant and event space in Building B will serve an estimated 2 million gallons of beverages each Market. That's enough to fill four and a half Olympic-sized swimming pools.
10. World Market Center pumps $90.1 million in non-gaming revenue into the local economy for EACH market - close to $200 million annually.
(C) MBN 2006 (William Hoehne & Joyce Chow)
World Market Center Building B Nears Completion in Las Vegas
During the Las Vegas Market this past week, the World Market Center promoted the progress of its Building B which nears completion and is scheduled to be on time for its scheduled debut in conjuction with the Winter Las Vegas Market beginning January 29, 2007.
Building B is a 16-story, $345 million, 1.6 million square foot structure. At 378 feet tall, Building B is the largest and tallest building in downtown Las Vegas and the tallest furniture mart building in the U.S.
Tours of the building progress were offered to the media and exhibitors. Comments from local Las Vegas media were that they weren't going to do a story on a building, but on the economic impact of the building.
We were curious why the World Market Center was even being built with an expected overall investment to exceed $3 billion dollars.
According to other media which have followed developments within the industry, Highpoint (North Carolina) was given the opportunity to build Highpoint West for the furniture industry. They declined and the World Market Center is now competing with Highpoint. They relayed that some of the vendors they had spoken with had already told them that revenues were within 30% of Highpoint even though this is only the 3rd year for the World Market Center. They thought Las Vegas was a much more attractive destination for the industry than Highpoint.
World Market Center, rather than relying on the local Las Vegas market to support the building and it's exhibitors, hopes to become the reality of its title
(C) MBN 2006 (William Hoehne & Joyce Chow)
