FEATURE STORY

It takes a rare personality to undertake the project of marketing and selling the largest privately financed Real Estate development in the history of North America. Such a project requires not only a visionary, but also a master organizer and executer of intricate game plans.

Meet Tony Dennis. After winning what he calls the “beauty contest” of candidate selection, Tony became the executive vice president overseeing development, marketing, sales and operations for the condominium and condo-hotel residences at CityCenter, MGM Mirage’s $7.4 billion city-within-a-city currently under construction on the Las Vegas strip. He is now in the process of filling the approximately 2,650 residences within CityCenter’s four distinct, luxury properties: Veer Towers; Vdara Condo Hotel; The Residences at Mandarin Oriental; and The Harmon Hotel, Spa and Residences.

The residences will open for capacity in the fourth quarter of 2009. Two years away from occupancy, Tony’s team has already sold 91 percent of the condos at The Mandarin Oriental. Also, The Harmon saw more than a quarter of its 207 residences sold within two weeks of entering the market in September of 2007.

The man who accomplished such a feat is a fourth-generation developer. Tony’s great-grandfather immigrated to Canada from Eastern Europe and began a modest housing business. Tony’s grandfather inherited the business and expanded it from home construction to apartment construction. His philosophy was “Build the best, build for quality, and build to last.” When Tony’s father took the reigns of the business, he further expanded it to include commercial Real Estate, building and operating three boutique hotels in Toronto.

Because Tony is descended from three generations of developers, he spent his childhood absorbing industry knowledge around the dinner table. He says that listening to family business discussions “colored [his] world” and laid the foundation for future successes.

After Tony went off to Cornell Hotel School, he shifted his thoughts from inheriting the family business to building his own legacy, thanks in part to the “no nepotism” policy implemented by his father.

Upon graduating from Cornell, Tony relearned the hotel industry from a consulting point of view by working for an accounting firm. Then he took the step he was destined to make: he built his own business.

Tony’s first enterprise was a restaurant which he built from scratch, or, in his words, “from soup to nuts.” He learned that he liked creating businesses more than operating other people’s creations.

Once he realized his passion for creating, he went back into development, an industry dedicated to creating buildings and neighborhoods. He learned the ropes as a clerk for the executive vice president of development for one of Toronto’s top developers. The ‘80s market slump was in full swing, which taught Tony both the discipline and the philosophy required to navigate the stormy seas of a down cycle.

Relationships with customers are key to beating the most difficult markets, according to Tony. It’s easier to do best by the existing customers than to try to find new ones, particularly when the market produces so few buyers. Developers must earn the trust of their clients not only by building quality architecture, but also by continuing to service the customers even after their warranties expire.

In 2001 Tony brought his business philosophy to the United States by way of Scottsdale, AZ. Four years later he found himself talking to an executive recruiter for MGM Mirage who asked him to create and write a vision for its new project, CityCenter, as an audition for an executive position. He essentially wrote a business plan from scratch.

His business plan landed him the opportunity to enter the market with the most important development in the world. He now brings four generations of business philosophy to Las Vegas as the executive vice president for CityCenter’s Residential Division.

The ability to navigate a down cycle has pushed CityCenter at full speed through the market headwind. In the first three quarters of 2007, CityCenter sold $1.5 billion in residential space. “If you ask us,” he says, “the market is great.”

Tony’s ability to attract clients to CityCenter increased greatly when Dubai World, the holding company that manages and supervises the portfolio of businesses and projects for Dubai government, invested $2.7 billion in CityCenter and an additional $2.4 billion in its parent company, MGM Mirage. While Las Vegas has traditionally catered to travelers from the Western Hemisphere, Dubai World maintains a client list that spans the world, including the formerly underrepresented Asian continent. With the Dubai investment, Tony has gained direct access to a huge list of international clients without having to travel to places like Hong Kong and Mumbai.

Tony can maintain relationships with the world’s most exclusive clientele because he understands their needs. In an age when consumers are increasingly demanding “green” living spaces, CityCenter is seeking LEED certification and will be one of the largest environmentally sustainable communities in the world when it opens in 2009.

In addition to sustainable living, Tony says that CityCenter’s clients are demanding a hospitality-at-home feel. Their time is valuable, even on vacation or in a second home, so they look to CityCenter to provide as many services as possible.

For instance, CityCenter’s Vdara Condo Hotel is a boutique hotel that combines residence with hospitality to produce an overall attitude of service within an exclusive residential atmosphere. MGM Mirage’s resort expertise combines with Tony’s residential development experience to offer a pampered lifestyle unparalleled in the world today.

In order to keep the idea of service fresh on the company’s collective mind, Tony has branded the philosophy of ExProServe, which stands for experience, product, service. The first tenet to selling a condo is the buyer’s experience of interacting with the seller. The second tenet is to offer an extremely high quality product. The final tenet is to maintain the anticipatory service throughout the duration of the relationship, which may span decades or, in some cases, generations.

Tony’s four generations of Real Estate development knowledge has prepared him for the awesome challenge of marketing the hemisphere’s largest Real Estate development. His demand for quality blends with his highly personal way of maintaining relationships with clients in order to create a fountain of opportunity for MGM Mirage and for all of Las Vegas.

Photography: Britt Pierson