Dubai World was concerned about the MGM Mirage’s ability to pull off this task and needed to go into further renegotiation to finish the project. The 76 acre CityCenter was still in trouble of being fully financed. In the event that the Dubai World Corporation did not contribute to the funding of the project, the MGM Mirage hotels and casinos would have had to file for bankruptcy.

As this project was in turmoil, so were the other hotel and casino properties owned by the MGM Mirage. With over $14 billion in debt, the Strip casinos had not been paying on their bonds therefore possibly forcing the company into a corporate-wide bankruptcy.

By May of 2009 all of these financial problems appeared to be under control. As of April, 29^th, MGM Mirage hotels and casinos agreed with Dubai World on a plan to finance and complete the CityCenter for its grand opening in December.

To go along with this good fortune, the MGM Mirage corporation has also restructured their company as well as raising $2.6 billion in order to avoid what appeared to be an inevitable bankruptcy. “It was truly remarkable what was accomplished,” D’Arrigo said.

D’Arrigo had his work cut out for him in order to balance running the nine hotels and casinos, he also had this project of CityCenter looming over his head. Hundreds of advisors have been called in throughout this process in order to keep the goals fresh and on track.

“One time, I got on a call and something like 80 people beeped in,” D’Arrigo said. “We had to do all we could to keep people organized and focused on the different pieces of the puzzle. If they didn’t sync up, then it wouldn’t make sense. You couldn’t do C if you hadn’t completed parts A and B first.”

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