In between all the bad news about declining tourist and gambling revenues, some good news has been coming out of Vegas that demonstrates that its still going to be a high end gambling destination for decades to come.
Becides the MGM Mirage news of the Harmon Las Vegas being scaled back, the another big news item is Africa Israel Group announcing they have plans to build the worlds largest hotel - with 6,745 rooms. To give you an idea the MGM Grand in Las Vegas has only (!) 5,690 rooms and other large conference hotels throughout America usually top out at 3,000 rooms.
This would be one large hotel built in four towers, under one name - compared to MGM's CityCenter having more total hotel rooms, yet under four different hotel names, with different management, etc.
What makes this so interesting to me is the history of the land which the hotel will be built on. This is the location that was to be the W Las Vegas and George Clooney's Las Ramblas and Edge East. When both projects were cancelled in 2006 Africa Israel purchased the parcels and combined them - but never announced what was going to happen.
The propert is on Harmon Ave - which at the time was shaping up to be a Las Vegas Strip East - both sides of the road from Las Vegas Blvd to Paradise Road were to be filled with high end, trendy modern hotels. Even today there is alot of action on the road - Hard Rock Hotel, MGM Signature Residences, Planet Hollywood and the Planet Hollywood Towers, but with Harrahs owning land on Harmon, and the Africa Israel property the area could be the next best place to be.
Plans havent been submitted yet - I'm not even sure that renderings have been created - and approvals are far from being approved for this project - but it says alot that Africa Israel is even putting it on the table. Any construction probably wouldnt even start until 2013-2014 so by that time the recession should be long over and hopefully Vegas will be busier than ever.
andrew@alconic-inc.com
Andrew Calvo is a 26 year old Commercial Real Estate Advisor in New Jersey. I live in Tinton Falls, NJ. This blog is about my passions - primarily hotels, commercial real estate, and development, etc.
Since I have been in High School Ifve had numerous jobs, but the field which has always interested me is Real Estate, Hotel Development and Construction. I consider myself a zealot in that area - I try to absorb as much as I possibly can, take the experiences that I learn, or read about and use them in my life.
www.passionsofazealot.com/2009/01/14/africa-israel-looking-to-build-worlds-largest-hotel-on-former-w-las-vegas-land