Make way for another huge casino on the Strip
The Las Vegas Strip’s skyline is about to get more crowded. On Wednesday, the Clark County Commission approved entertainment and dining mogul Tillman Fertitta’s plans for a 43-story, 2,420-room (!) casino resort on the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue.
The property would include pretty much everything aside from the casino and hotel: a convention center, a wedding chapel, a spa, a 2,500-seat theater, restaurants, and even an auto showroom.
Fertitta should not have any problem getting restaurants to claim spots at the resort. He owns Landry’s, Inc., which owns and operates loads of brand-name dining chains, such as McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood & Steaks, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co,. Rainforest Café, and Morton’s The Steakhouse.
Fertitta bought the six-acre plot of land in June for $270 million. It is sandwiched between the MGM Grand and Planet Hollywood, across the street from CityCenter, the complex that houses ARIA. Though the Strip is dominated by sprawling casino resorts, there are smaller, local businesses there, as well. Brett Torino, who owns a retail complex on the northeast corner of the intersection, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in April, when the news that Fertitta was going to buy land broke, that another luxury casino property would be welcomed.
“You have the opportunity to squeeze — I don’t know if this is his plan — a massive amount of construction and development on that site,” he said. Yes, that is his plan. Torino is likely excited because it will be another tourist draw, which should increase traffic to the businesses on his property.
Fertitta has experience in Las Vegas
Fertitta already owns the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas, as well as Golden Nuggets in Laughlin (Nevada), Lake Charles (Louisiana), Biloxi (Mississippi), and Atlantic City. He has not said what the name of the new property will be, but one might guess that it would not use the Golden Nugget brand, lest people confuse it with the classic one downtown.
Tilman Fertitta also owns his home town Houston Rockets, which he bought for $2.2 billion in 2017, fulfilling a lifelong dream. He was also one of the original investors in the NFL’s Houston Texans in 1999 (the franchise started play in 2002), though he had to divest in 2008 because of league rules surrounding gambling.
Neither Fertitta, his company, nor any of its representatives have said publicly when demolition on the site will commence. The land currently houses some souvenir shops, a restaurant building, and an old motel. Rebecca Miltenberger, an attorney with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, who is serving as the project’s representative, implied that construction will take about two years.
