In “Ocean’s Eleven,” George Clooney robbed a casino. Now he is going to build one. Clooney, nightclub owner Rand Gerber, and two Las Vegas real estate companies will announce today their plans to build a casino, a boutique hotel, and a sprawling condominium project on Harmon Avenue, just off the strip, in an area that has become one of the most popular development corners in town.
It won’t be a resort for a crowd of tank tops, shorts and pannies racing down the sidewalks of Las Vegas Boulevard, the actor said. Lions used to lure visitors to volcanoes, pirate ships, and strip casinos.
“We have a romantic concept of a place where you wear a jacket or dress to go to dinner,” said Clooney, 44. “We’re going to have some kind of dress code so you can feel like you’re entering a more formal Las Vegas or classical Monte Carlo casino from a different era.”
Clooney will work with joint venture partners Related Las Vegas and Centra Properties, but he acknowledged that he has no real expertise in developing sophisticated hotels. However, the actor noted that he stayed in some luxury properties for several years and owned a villa in Lake Como, Italy.
“I might be a beginner in this group, but I’m well aware of what I like in Las Vegas, and it’s all about classes,” Clooney said. 에볼루션 바카라사이트
The 300-room hotel will be the centerpiece of a $3 billion, 25-acre project on Harmon Avenue, just west of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The Spanish-themed Las Ramblas development will take shape in a section of Harmon, which will be transformed into a large investment in famous projects.
Last week, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. and developer Edge Resorts announced plans to build a $1.7 billion hotel and condominium complex on the 21-acre Harmon Field just west of Las Ramblas. To the east, Hard Rock is planning $1.2 billion worth of construction, including 800 condominium hotels, 400 residences, dozens of bungalows, restaurants and stores.
MGM Mirage and Turnberry Associates, near Harmon, are in the middle of a billion-dollar venture building that will build 1,727 condominiums. MGM Mirage, located at the intersection of Harmon, plans a $4.7 billion Project City Center, which features a 4,000-room casino resort, three small hotels, a 550,000-square-foot shopping complex, and 1,650 condominiums.
“We’re looking at the development of vertical strips,” said Reagan Silver, one of the Edge Resorts’ partners. “There’s an easy $10 billion-plus planned development in the area.”
Whether the so-called Harmon Avenue Corridor, east of Interstate 15, will develop into a full-fledged “striplet” is up for debate among Vegas cogosents. But what’s clear is that the traditional strip bulges from east to west, said Steve Moralski, a veteran developer.
“Everything in the area is going to be turned upside down for development,” said Molasky, who is completing plans to build a hotel casino resort on Flamingo Road, which will support several Harmon Avenue projects.
This has pushed the value of a roadside property near Streep to levels seen at major Las Vegas boulevards just two years ago, said James Stewart, the co-founder of Centra. For example, his group paid $83.7 million ($3.3 million per acre) to assemble a Las Ramblas home in March. Edge Resorts paid $182.2 million ($5.1 million per acre) in real estate prices while assembling its Starwood-developed home from December to March.
The announcement of the Las Ramblas project, which will include a hotel, 1,326 condominiums, and 2,764 residential condominiums if built, comes amid a boom in Las Vegas for high-rise condominium construction. The hotel will be built as one of the condominium towers. The building and three additional towers in Las Ramblas are scheduled to open in 2008.
Although several developers in the town have cut sweet deals with Hollywood celebrities for units in their high-rise apartment projects, Clooney and Gerber say they are “significant investors” in the development of Las Ramblas. Stewart said their commitment would reach “tens of millions of dollars,” but neither party provided further details. In addition, the pair is playing an active role in design and business decisions, Stewart said.
The idea of actually owning a casino came from a conversation between Clooney and Gerber while the actor was staying in Bellagio while filming Ocean’s Eleven, which was released in 2001. Clooney said his friends thought it would be “cool” to own something like Bellagio, which is much smaller and to his liking.
Friends prepared for the presentation and spoke with Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the owner of the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, and an unnamed second casino company.
“While everyone was intrigued, it seemed like our hotel would end up with the 4,000-room resort’s amenities. It really wouldn’t belong to our hotel,” said Gerber, who worked with his brother Scott to develop the whisky bar nightlife.
But Gerber knew some of the executives involved because they worked at the Time Warner Center in New York, where they own Stone Rose Bar.
Gerber, the husband of model Cindy Crawford, said, “I just called them in because they were going to come into the bar.”