High Point hedges its bets against Vegas rival's threat.

• Position: Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

When mixing business with pleasure, Las Vegas trumps High Point. It has the flash and the cash, the strip and the strippers. It has more nightclubs and restaurants, not to mention hotel rooms. Bottom line: Vegas has the glitz; High Point has the grits. The gambling capital's advantages could become even more important if developers succeed in building a furniture mart to rival the International Home Furnishings Market in High Point.

Los Angeles-based Furniture Mart Enterprises LLC will break ground next year on a 10-story building with a million square feet of showrooms, opening in the second half of 2003. The initial investment of $100 million could grow to $750 million, and 7.5 million square feet, over eight years.

High Point's market hasn't crapped out. Over the past two years, it added 2 million square feet of showrooms, bringing the city's total to 11 million. To some, that might indicate the danger to High Point's market - which pumps $335 million a year into the Triad - is no more real than a mirage in the Nevada desert.

But market promoters in High Point don't want to bet on it. The 82,000 designers, architects and retailers who flock to showrooms twice a year have been grumbling. The short list: Shortages of rental cars, hotel rooms and parking; price-gouging; lack of cellphone capacity.

What's to...