Building a resort/casino -- even one that's small compared to the megaresorts owned by Caesars Entertainment (CZR), MGM Resorts (MGM), and Wynn Resorts (WYNN) -- involves enormous resources.
Besides hundreds of millions of dollars of capital, a developer also needs a complicated array of permits and zoning approvals plus enough land to accommodate everything in the building plan.
Further, finding a place to build on such a huge scale isn't easy -- and the Las Vegas Strip has been a particular sinkhole for projects.
Some massive plans get announced and then quietly disappear as funding falls apart or some aspect of the plan never comes together. Other casinos, hotels, and entertainment venues get started and then something goes wrong.
That, of course, is the story of Fontainebleau, a massive Las Vegas Strip resort/casino that broke ground on the northern section of the famed road nearly 20 years ago.
The project has passed through multiple owners, seen construction stop and start multiple times, and now -- after almost two decades -- seems on track for a late-2023 opening under the original developer.
Call that a cautionary tale. These days, anything that could hinder construction plans for any new projects becomes at least a yellow, if not a red, flag.
And that, in turn, makes an unexpected problem -- call it a tilt -- at a just-begun new, and very different, Las Vegas resort/casino something that seemed as if it might derail the project.
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A Las Vegas Resort Dream - and a Hitch
Land on the 4.2-mile Las Vegas Strip has become incredibly rare and thus valuable. That's why Caesars and MGM have generally sold their land to Vici Properties (VICI), so they can focus on operations, not being a landlord.
The lack of land has also stretched the definition of which areas are viable for a resort/casino property. Resorts World Las Vegas has revitalized the North Strip, paving the way for the Fontainebleau comeback.
And now Dream Hotel Group has broken ground on a new boutique hotel/casino on Las Vegas Boulevard near the private aviation terminal at McCarran International Airport. That puts the new property two blocks from Allegiant Stadium and relatively close to T-Mobile Arena.
The 531-room hotel should cost around $550 million and open in 2024,
Unfortunately, a neighbor of the under-construction property, the who-knew-it existed Pinball Hall of Fame, "encroached by at least eight feet" on Dream’s property, according to a lawsuit the hotel developers filed last fall in Clark County District Court, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
That sounds like a small detail, but it's not easy to unbuild a property. The casino owner's lawsuit said the "unlawful occupation" of Dream’s property prevented a drainage outlet, as it was originally designed and engineered, from being constructed, the paper reported.
Smaller problems have derailed bigger projects as lawsuits fly, lawyers fight, and construction grinds to a halt.
Las Vegas Dream: Potential Nightmare
The Dream project has been snakebit since it was first put on the table, just before the covid pandemic put every Las Vegas construction project into question.
Dream's owners also had to alter its original design plans as its proximity to the airport created questions about "illegal drone flying and bombs hidden in garbage trucks, due to Dream’s location next to Las Vegas’ airport," the Review-Journal reported.
But while problems like this can lead down a legal rabbit hole, the problem was discovered early and, despite the lawsuit, the nonprofit that owns the Pinball Hall of Fame and the boutique hotel developer came to a solution.
“Everyone stood up and did what they had to do,” said Tim Arnold, president of the nonprofit that owns the pinball facility, according to the paper.
The problem traced back to a faulty survey, and Arnold told the paper that the "whole thing could have gone south and come off the rails at any point," but instead, there was compromise and negotiation.
The two sides have settled their dispute, plans for Dream Las Vegas have been modified, and the property's construction continues to move forward.
