Even more confusingly, Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese said the company was planning a “soft opening” of the Palazzo “sometime at the end of December,” but that “…we are focused on a grand opening celebration on January 18.”

Er, right. So presumably the Palazzo will be open for business fully from January 18th, but the foyer will be open on December 20th so the company can claim it met its 2007 opening deadline.

Whatever, the fact that they managed to get the Palazzo open in such a short time is impressive enough, as is the building itself. There will be a grand opening celebration on the nights of January 17th and 18th 2008 as well, which should be spectacular.

[Source: LVBusinessPress]

But the Crown Las Vegas really does intend to be the most outlandish of all, as it’s set to rise some 1,888 feet tall – that’s 700 feet higher than the Stratosphere!

The people behind the Crown Las Vegas, PBL, have just filed papers recently with the Clark County planning commission outlining their plans for the super-huge hotel. These plans include a 142 floor monstrosity that would dwarf everything all around it.

More details after the jump.

Featuring 5,000 rooms and tonnes of retail, restaurants, gaming, spa and convention center space, the Crown Las Vegas would be the tallest building not just in Las Vegas, but in the whole of the US, rising some 400 feet above the Sears Tower in Chicago (the current tallest).

Unfortunately for PBL, their plans could be scuppered by the FAA, who are worried that the building would be a flight hazard to planes landing at McCarran airport. Really? You mean pilots taking off and landing wouldn’t see a 1,888 feet tall building?! Should we be worried about this?!

Aside from this, there’s also the thought that the hotel itself might not be that profitable. Hugely tall buildings need to transport visitors from their rooms to ground level (and, of course, casino level) quickly. If you don’t do this efficiently, you get disgruntled guests, not to mention guests who can’t actually get to your casino.

Even a hotel as (relatively) small as Circus Circus can take up to 20 minutes to get out of the building. Actually, it can take longer than that. During my stay last year, three of the lifts had broken down, leaving just one lift for the entire tower. After waiting 10 minutes, I gave up and used the stairs, which took me another 15 minutes! Imagine doing that in a tower that’s 1,888 feet tall?!

Whether PBL get permission to build their monstrosity to the height they want to remains to be seen, but it seems they’re serious about building it, so one way or another, the Stratosphere could soon have a seriously tall neighbour!

[Source: LasVegasLogue]

The Palazzo, one of the new Las Vegas hotels currently reaching skywards, has confirmed its set to open on December 20th 2007. Some people are surprised by this given its current state of construction (see pic above, taken on 7th July 2007 and courtesy of Mark Adams), but the Las Vegas Sands Corp., owners of the Palazzo, are confident they can make this date.

When it’s complete, the Palazzo, when combined with its sister hotel the Venetian, will be “the largest integrated destination resort in the world” with 7,128 hotel rooms and 2.3 million square feet of meeting space on the Las Vegas Strip.

It should also be a good little earner, given that the Venetian has just posted revenue of $235.5 million for the quarter for the Venetian.

[Source: Forbes, LasVegasTodayAndTomorrow]

This area of the strip is currently occupied by the Hawaiian marketplace, which I’ve never liked. It’s full of stalls selling junk, gets massively overcrowded, looks ugly, and is a nightmare to walk through when you’re on your way to the MGM Grand and New York New York.

The Hawaiian market has not exactly been a success. According to the Las Vegas Journal, the $175 million plaza, which opened in 2004, has an interior that even now is largely empty. Come to think of it, I didn’t even know there was an interior – I thought it was just the marketplace, with a few random buildings thrown around it that I never considered entering!

Now, though, New York-based FX Luxury Realty has taken control of 18 acres of land on the southeast corner of Harmon Avenue and the Strip, and plans to create what Ed Tagliaferri, spokesman for FX Luxury, says will be a “retail, hotel, casino and residential project on that property. It is likely the property will be used, in part for an Elvis-themed development given that Elvis was the embodiment of Las Vegas.”

Oh god, no, not Elvis! Vegas has done an incredible job in shaking off the cheesy image that Elvis had bestowed upon the place. The last thing the strip needs is an Elvis-themed resort!

Come to think of it, though, with all the new luxurious towers that are being built, none of which offers any sort of theme, and with even some of the existing themed hotels, such as the Luxor, shaking off their themes, perhaps an Elvis-themed hotel is exactly what the new Vegas does need.

It could be a real antidote to the po-faced high-brow luxury hotels that are being built, and an ironic throwback to the the cheesy days of Vegas gone by.

Or it could just be crap as it tries to take itself too seriously!

Whichever it turns out to be, though, it can’t be worse than the damned Hawaiian marketplace, so build it guys, and build it fast!

[Source: Las Vegas Review Journal]

More pictures of Project City Center after the jump.

The first thing that strikes you about the design is its scale – it’s huge! OK, so most buildings along the strip are huge, too, but it’s the concentration of so many huge buildings that impresses with Project City Center.

One thing that might be a problem, though, is how these buildings will fit in to the overall feel of Las Vegas. Although Vegas’s existing hotels all look different to one another (and, indeed, to any other building on earth!), most of them share a sense of Vegas identity – largely, pure theatre!

The buildings in Project City Center, though, all appear to be standard glass towers like you’d find in any other major city. Although one or two towers wouldn’t be a problem, I’m a bit concerned that the sheer scale of City Center might overwhelm the strip, and start to turn one of the world’s great modern wonders into just another city center with the usual array of skyscrapers.

Fortunately, there’s usually quite a difference from the original renderings of a new hotel to the final constructed building, so let’s hope that Project City Center doesn’t spoil the strip by being too boring.

[Source: Rafael Vinoly Architects]

Now, obviously I know nothing about construction, but adding that much glass in the middle of a building site seems like asking for trouble! Not only can the glass be easily smashed with all that construction going on, but imagine being a construction worker walking under it? As if the risk of falling masonry wasn’t bad enough – is a hard-hat enough to shield you if one of the panes falls out?

Rather them than me!

More photos of Project City Center after the jump.

These next two pics were taken by Aaron Auxier of VegasCondoScene.com, and show the construction of the new Veer tower.

Veer isn’t your average straight-up kind of tower – as its name suggests, the shape of Veer actually twists as it rises.

It’s one thing seeing artistic renderings of the shape, but seeing the twisting support columns in the flesh, all bent at odd angles, certainly makes for an arresting sight.

[Source: VegasCondoScene, via VegasTodayAndTomorrow, SkyScraper Page]

Secondly, is its size: Pulse will be built on 85 acres of land, and will come with a huge array of features, including a 22,000-seat arena – but more on those in a minute.

It’s most astonishing feature by far, though, is its cost – $9.5 billion!!

More details on Las Vegas Pulse after the jump.

MGM Mirage’s Project CityCenter is currently the most expensive (and largest) privately-financed construction project in the western hemisphere, but even that is dwarfed by the enormous scale of Pulse. Costing nearly $2 billion more than CityCenter, Pulse will offer the following:

• 22,000-seat arena
• 300,000 square feet of gaming floor space
• 6,000 hotel rooms
• over 1.5 million square feet of commercial and retail floor space
• 3.5 million square feet of office and permanent exhibition space
• 1,500 condominium units
• 1,600 timeshare condominium units.

The aim is to attract people from both the strip and dowtown Las Vegas by using the arena as a major attraction. Once at Pulse, visitors will be given so many things to do, they won’t want to rush back to their hotel, and so will stay where they are.

In addition, with 6,000 hotel rooms and 3,100 condo units, Pulse will contain its own caoptive audience of visitors, ensuring the place is never deserted.

That is, of course, presuming so many people actually want to come to Las Vegas in the first place!

Granted the existing hotels run at roughly 90% occupancy the whole year round, implying there’s huge demand for more space, but there are now tens of thousands of new rooms being built – can the place cope with another 6,000?!

REI, the people behind Pulse, clearly think so.

Jon Weaver, President of REI, said “This is the most exciting and dynamic development corridor in the United States. Our project continues the Strip experience, anchored at the north end by an easily accessible and iconic sports arena. This is great for the City, great for the Strip, and great for the residents of the Valley.”

Mayor Oscar Goodman concurred, saying “We are ecstatic about this project and how it proposes to change the face of Las Vegas. What more could we ask for – the City could get an arena that we are in desperate need of, in addition to millions of dollars of ancillary development in our burgeoning midtown area, and all at no risk to the City.”

So the developers are up for it, the mayor’s up for it – let’s just hope the visitors are, too!

[Source: LasVegasTodayAndTomorrow]

I’ll update this with more pics of Echelon Place, along with any construction pics that are released as well, as they come in. I’ll also be adding some more galleries in the near future, both of existing hotels and also of new Las Vegas hotels.

However, an anonymous building on the strip would mean almost certain death for any project, and certainly one costing over $4 billion. Fortunately, a new set of renderings have emerged that ad far more detail to Echelon Place’s current design, and as you can see, this set looks far more spectacular than the last one.

More pics of Echelon Place after the jump.


Perhaps the most visually arresting aspect of these renderings is the design of the new Delano tower. Rather than being a simple vertical tower like Trump’s, the Delano is perched on top of the Mondrian tower, 400 feet in the air! Oddly, this isn’t shown in the earlier Echelon Place renderings that were released.

Just as impressive is the Delano’s core, which will apparently be encased by large pixellated LEDs, which should look fantastic at night. If there’s one thing Echelon Place won’t be, it’s anonymous!

Between them, the Delano and Mondrian Towers will feature:

• 1,400 rooms, suites, penthouses and bungalows (not sure how you can fit a bungalow into a skyscraper, but hey, this is Vegas, so anything’s possible!)
• 3-storey rooftop spa in the Delano
• Rooftop Skybar in the Mondrian
• Activity deck
• 400 foot rock climbing wall.

Two features that immediately jump out are the Mondrian’s rooftop Skybar, which should offer glorious views over the strip, and the 400 foot rock climbing wall, which by the sounds of it, should rise the entire height of the Mondrian tower! That has to be something else to see, whether looking up from the bottom or down from the top, never mind climbing the thing!

The other renderings give an idea of how other areas of Echelon Place will look, and the whole style seems seriously classy.
As more details emerge, Ecehelon Place is starting to look like it’ll fit in just fine on the strip, and should become a destination in its right. And don’t forget that these are renderings of just two of Echelon’s five towers – there’s a still another three that we have no details on yet. Echelon Place is shaping up to be a fine hotel, even if it doesn’t have a them.

Update: You can see these pics in a much better size in our new Echelon Place gallery.

[Source: Oppenoffice.com, via SkyscraperPages]

However, it was precisely because they were investing so heavily in CityCenter that it was thought that the company wouldn’t begin work on the land until sometime close to CityCenter’s compeltion – in other words, sometime in 2009.

This being Vegas, though, things tend to happen rather quickly, and MGM Mirage have now announced a deal with Kerzner International Holdings that will see the development of a multi-billion dollar “integrated resort property” on this area of land, which should being construction a lot sooner than 2009.

Kerzner are the people behind the fabulous-looking Atlantis, Pardise Island hotel in the Bahamas, and so with this latest news, rumours are abound that new Las Vegas resort could be a Las Vegas Atlantis right next to Circus Circus – just without the sea and the ships!

Full details of MGM Mirage and Kerzner’s announcement after the jump.

From the press release:

MGM MIRAGE (NYSE: MGM) and Kerzner International Holdings Limited (“Kerzner” or “Kerzner International”) announced today that the companies have entered into a letter of intent to form a 50/50 joint venture to develop a multi-billion dollar integrated resort property on the Las Vegas Strip. The parties plan to enter into immediate negotiations with a view to concluding a definitive agreement in the third quarter of 2007.

The new resort will be designed for approximately 40 of the 78 acres of land owned by MGM MIRAGE, located on the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue. Kerzner will lead the planning and conceptualization of this project. The joint venture is expected to draw upon MGM MIRAGE’s substantial presence and experience in Las Vegas and Kerzner’s experience in developing and operating some of the world’s most recognized and successful destination resorts.

“We see this type of relationship as a major part of our company’s future,” said Terry Lanni, Chairman and CEO of MGM MIRAGE. “Our considerable real estate holdings, combined with our experience and efficiencies in developing major entertainment resort properties, are unmatched. We believe this joint venture could well serve as a model for similar transactions which we think could further enhance shareholder value by accelerating growth and conserving our capital, allowing us to pursue other growth opportunities and/or return excess capital to our shareholders.”

Sol Kerzner, Chairman and CEO of Kerzner International, observed: “We have studied the Las Vegas market for some time and believe this is an outstanding opportunity to create one of the most innovative and exciting destination resorts in the world. We are delighted to join forces with MGM MIRAGE.”

Under the terms of the agreement, MGM MIRAGE will provide the land for the resort and Kerzner International and one of its financial partners will provide cash equity, such that each party owns 50 percent of the project. The land being contributed by MGM MIRAGE is being valued at $20 million per acre. The new integrated resort complex is anticipated to be a multi-billion dollar project and will be financed through equity contributions and third-party debt financing.

The broad conceptual design direction of the new resort has been agreed by the parties and design and planning is expected to take approximately one year to complete. Upon completion of the design phase, both parties anticipate a three year construction period. The as-yet unnamed resort project may utilize existing brands owned by either MGM MIRAGE or Kerzner International, or a new brand will be introduced.

“This is an exciting opportunity for our company,” said Jim Murren, President, CFO and Treasurer of MGM MIRAGE. “This is a prime location in the heart of a rapidly developing area of the Las Vegas Strip. Partnering with a highly respected global resort operator on such a prime piece of Las Vegas real estate will certainly result in a spectacular project. This resort will further enhance the Las Vegas tourist experience and drive incremental visitors to the Strip. This development will further elevate the value of our surrounding land holdings and assets.”