When Aristocrat Technologies decided in 2016 to consolidate its North American headquarters from five separate buildings spread across Las Vegas into one centralized campus, company leaders surveyed the 1,100 employees as to what special features they wanted in the new office space.
An employee gym, an in-house cafeteria and an open-environment topped the list, said Matt Wilson, Aristocrat’s managing director of Americas. Another priority wasn’t a surprise.
“More restrooms,” Wilson said with a smile while leading a tour of the Australian-based gaming equipment manufacturer’s new 12-acre campus in the western Las Vegas community of Summerlin.
The company will cut the ribbon on the new 180,000-square-foot facility Thursday morning with a delegation that includes Aristocrat Leisure Limited Chairman Ian Blackburne and Aristocrat CEO Trevor Croker.
Move-in will begin in earnest on Friday. The company declined to provide a cost for the complex.
The new campus is highlighted by two three-story buildings, each housing 90,000 square feet of open space floor-plan. Even Wilson’s office is situated in an open space environment, although there are dozens of “huddle rooms” throughout the buildings for private meetings and phone conversations that – when the doors are closed – silence off outside noise.
The complex allows Aristocrat to bring its multiple game design studios into one setting. Aristocrat will continue to maintain other North American sales and design studios in the U.S. The company is also retaining its warehouse and manufacturing facility near Interstate 15 and the Las Vegas Strip that offers easy game shipping access to McCarran International Airport.
“We just simply outgrew our corporate space and it made more sense to bring everyone together,” Wilson said. “This setting allows for much better employee interaction.”
The work areas include 858 specially-designed sit and stand desks, specially-created ergonomically designed chairs and other first-of-its-kind office furniture, and several gaming research collaboration zones.
Interior designers also created “privacy rooms” – single-and-multi-person focus nooks that are padded with sound absorbing fabric and inner systems.
Aristocrat’s new campus will have WiFi throughout the complex, but also offer information technology genius bars when issues arise, and audio-visual conferencing cameras in every meeting and huddle room.
Aristocrat Vice President of Project Management Mary Lynn Palenik said the complex’s interior wiring would stretch the nearly 11 miles between the new campus and the company’s Las Vegas warehouse facility “12 times back and forth.”
Depending on which side of the two buildings an employee’s work space faces, expansive views of western mountains or the Las Vegas Valley and the Strip are offered.
Wilson said Howard Hughes Corp., developers of the Summerlin master-planned community and Aristocrat’s landlords, plan to submit the building for Silver Certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), which is conducted by the U.S. Green Building Council.
As for those employee survey requests, an employee gym was created with three zones – workout equipment, stretch-band, and exercise class with ballet barre – along with locker rooms equipped with showers, restrooms, changing areas, and lockers.
A cafeteria that serves prepared food daily will be managed by the Compass Group, which manages corporate dining facilities for 99 Fortune 100 companies. Food and beverage will be subsidized by Aristocrat, including specialty drinks from an on-site barista bar.
Each floor of the building will house kitchen pantries for employee use with refrigerators/freezers, microwave ovens, coffee service and weekly stocking of complimentary food items.
And, yes, Wilson added, there are multiple bathroom facilities on each floor.
Special add-ons include a living aromatic herb garden and game-play areas with ping pong, pool tables and video games.
Wilson said the Aristocrat complex will enhance employee teamwork “by providing a functional environment that sparks collaboration and innovation.”
Employees will be able to easily move about the campus between the two buildings.
The site includes a 10,000-square foot backyard patio with mature palm trees and shade structures, allowing for large customer and employee events. Built-in outdoor benches in the courtyard area seat up to 200.
A large showroom featuring more than 100 of the company’s newest slot games is in the complex.
Aristocrat broke ground on the new campus in July 2017 with the help of Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, who visited Aristocrat’s headquarters in Sydney, Australia during a 2016 trade mission. He said Las Vegas embraces the gaming industry, but he also wanted the state to be a leader in innovation.
Over the last 10 years, many of the Nevada-based gaming equipment manufacturers moved their corporate offices to Las Vegas’ western edge along the Interstate 215 beltway. Aristocrat had the benefit of those companies to come up with different ideas for its new campus.
Wilson said the company created “an inspiring environment for employees” that will be critical to the company’s continued success.
The project architect is Ed Vance & Associates Architects; interior architect is HOK; and the general contractor is Martin-Harris Construction.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
