Las Vegas Metro Development News

[desertpunk]

Goodbye Sahara, Hello SLS Las Vegas

Goodbye Sahara, hello SLS Las Vegas.

Think of this as an implosion without the dynamite.

Sahara owners SBE Entertainment of Los Angeles and San Francisco-based private equity group Stockbridge Real Estate said Monday they had completed the process to acquire $300 million in financing that will return Sahara, which was shuttered almost a year ago, into an operational north-Strip hotel-casino sometime in 2014.

SBE Chef Executive Officer Sam Nazarian the three existing hotel towers would remain, but two will be "stripped down to their skeletons." A low-rise hotel structure will be torn down, but the 2,500-space parking garage will remain.

SLS Las Vegas will have roughly 1,600 rooms and operate as a "true boutique resort," although it will be the largest SLS hotel in the company. Gensler Architects and Penta Building Group have been hired to oversee the renovation. Nazarian said plans have been completed and construction work could begin by the end of summer.

He said SBE took a similar building approach when it developed SLS properties in Beverly Hills, Calif., and in Miami's South Beach, adapting and renovating existing buildings.

The two-year time line to complete the remodeling, allows SBE to grow its database of customers to more than 2.5 million names. By the time SLS Las Vegas opens, SBE will have SLS-branded hotels in several U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami.

[desertpunk]

The Smith Center For Performing Arts has opened

image hosted on flickr

The Smith Center for the Performing Arts by odonata98 (out of hibernation), on Flickr

image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pbo31/

[desertpunk]

Las Vegas Monorail Set To Emerge From Bankruptcy



Time to take on more debt and add extensions!

[desertpunk]

Las Vegas Convention Authority Proposes New Building Plans (Video in link)

Las Vegas visitor volume continued to climb in March despite a drop in convention attendance, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Thursday.

The LVCVA said 3.5 million tourists visited the city in March, a 3.7 percent increase over March 2011. For the first quarter, visitor volume is up 3.6 percent over last year to 9.8 million, just under the pace needed to record an unprecedented 40 million visitors.

Convention attendance was down 3.9 percent to 513,010, in part because the Las Vegas Convention Center hosted the triennial ConExpo-Con/Agg construction equipment trade show that brought 120,000 people to the city in 2011. Convention attendance was down despite a 34.6 percent increase in the number of conferences and meetings held (2,302).

Occupancy rates were up in every category except weekends. Citywide occupancy was up 1.1 percentage points to 88.3 percent, with hotel occupancy up 1 point to 90.5 percent. Weekend occupancy fell 0.9 points to 94.4 percent.

The city’s average daily room rate also was off 3.5 percent to $107.21, but for the quarter, it was up 3.6 percent to $109.84.

Both auto and air traffic figures were up for the month, with traffic on all major highways up 0.9 percent to an average 101,223 vehicles per day and the number crossing the California-Nevada border up 7.9 percent to 40,304.

Earlier this month, McCarran International Airport reported a 2.5 percent increase in passengers to 3.7 million.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012...-latest-numbe/

[Jasonhouse]

Originally Posted by desertpunk

Las Vegas Monorail Set To Emerge From Bankruptcy



Time to take on more debt and add extensions!

The monorail obviously needs to go to the airport. I'm still amazed that it didn't do so from the day it opened.

[desertpunk]

Originally Posted by Jasonhouse

The monorail obviously needs to go to the airport. I'm still amazed that it didn't do so from the day it opened.

It's like the DesertXpress HSR train going to Victorville CA and not into L.A. I guess Vegas is really all about desert mirages!

[desertpunk]

Riviera Getting $20-30 Million Makeover

[skyscraperhighrise]

I Really Hope to go to las vegas next year or if I Win the lottery and powerball.

[desertpunk]

Developers begin next construction phase for SkyVue’s 500-foot wheel


http://www.ktnv.com/

Down on the ground, two pillars now 60 feet tall point skyward, showing SkyVue is more than just so much talk. Today, the project begins the second phase of a $200 million construction that Bulloch promises will have a wheel towering over the Strip by the end of the year.

A dozen semi trucks are set to roll into the construction site this morning, bringing enough steel cable to stretch from the Strip to the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco to serve as supports for the massive wheel.

Plans are to have the hub and spindle for the wheel in place by the end of summer. By fall, constructions workers will begin forging large pie-shaped steel supports around the hub for a wheel expected to carry passengers late next year.

"The engineering behind it is like a big Erector set," Bulloch said.

[saiholmes]

cool!

[desertpunk]

Downtown Law Office To Build Soon


http://www.powerbrokerconfidential.c...1_archive.html

Construction is scheduled to begin in June on a four-story, 46,000-square-foot law office and mock courtroom at 400 S. Seventh St., the latest development shaping the future of downtown Las Vegas.

Attorney Robert Eglet, who won a $160 million settlement for plaintiffs in the hepatitis C medical malpractice lawsuit, announced the project Thursday at UNLV's William S. Boyd School of Law.

The Robert T. Eglet Advocacy Center will be home to four law firms and an investigation firm that share ownership in the joint venture, he said.

At an estimated cost of $18 million, it's the largest privately funded building to go downtown in a number of years, Eglet said.

The project is being financed by Bank of Nevada and the Small Business Administration. Korte Co. is the general contractor, and DesignCell is the architect. Completion is expected in December 2013.

"We're committed to the downtown area. With our practice, it's important to be within walking distance of the courthouse," the personal injury attornºey said. "The economy is getting better. I think you're going to see more development downtown, and we're happy to be part of that."

David Wall, former judge and Eglet partner, said the venture shows commitment not only to the future of downtown Las Vegas, but to the community as a whole.

[desertpunk]

Harmon Corner Signs Up Bubba Gump's


http://www.powerbrokerconfidential.c...on-corner.html

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurants signed a long-term lease to occupy the still under construction $100 million, 110,184-square-foot Harmon Corner, on 2.17 acres, at the northeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue. The three-level enclosed shopping mall is scheduled to open this summer. Bret Torino is the developer; Penta Building Group is the general contractor; SH Architecture is the architect. Lease terms were not disclosed. Virtus Commercial’s Jeff Mitchell represented the tenant. The steel-and-glass triangular-shaped building will consist of 17 stores and boutiques, including three restaurants with outdoor patio dining.

[desertpunk]

Liberty Dental Signs At Rainbow Sunset Pavillion

Liberty Dental Plan Corp. signed a 66-month, $2,013,401 lease for 13,251 square feet of office space inside Rainbow Sunset Pavilion at 6385 S. Rainbow Blvd. in Las Vegas. Colliers International’s Tom Stilley, Lizz Stilley, Ryan Martin and Patti Dillon represented the lessee; CB Richard Ellis' Randy Broadhead represented the lessor, GY Rainbow Holdings

[desertpunk]

New renders out for SLS Las Vegas



And a mockup:


http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012...cess-north-po/

More SLS branded properties in Beverly Hills and Miami Beach. Guess what market segment they're targeting?

[desertpunk]

UNLV Regents Consider 60,000 Seat On Campus Stadium Plans

The expected approval this coming week of an agreement between UNLV and private developers will end 15 months of preliminary planning and open the door for the inking of hard-and-fast plans for a campus project that includes 4,000 living units and and a 60,000-seat stadium.

Called “UNLV Now,” the 150-acre project also will include a retail area known as a student village. If the university system’s Board of Regents approves an exclusive negotiating agreement between UNLV and Majestic Realty Co., the next step will be returning in November for approval of a new campus master plan. Then, if the Legislature quickly approves a tax-incremental financing district for the project early in its 2013 session, Craig Cavileer said construction likely will begin in 2013.

Cavileer, Silverton resort president and Majestic’s project representative, said the project was “pivotal” for the evolution of the university, which is slightly more than 50 years old. “We’re really changing things for the next 100 years,” Cavileer said. When the project is completed, UNLV President Neal Smatresk said, it will be “the most exciting college facility ever built in the United States.” For the campus, he added, “this is the transformational step we need.”

University overseers will get the chance to approve a negotiating agreement Friday. If approved, it will provide more assurance to Majestic that the university is serious, that it wants this project done. Approval will allow Majestic to spend what is estimated to be millions more working on details of the project — timelines, costs, logistics.

Broad details about the project have changed over 15 months. Cavileer said the most current vision is for the 1.1 million-square-foot stadium/event center to have 52,000 permanent seats but to be expandable to 60,000. UNLV football games would be played there but Rebel basketball games still would be at the Thomas & Mack Center, which would be overhauled and renovated as part of the project. Last year, the Sun reported the project’s estimated cost at $2 billion. Cavileer would not offer an estimate but said the project would be less expensive than any of the Strip’s newer casinos.

The event center would take about 30 months to complete. Whether it would be built concurrently with the living units and student village are details Cavileer said still needed to be solidified. The temperature-controlled, covered event center, which would be kept at 70 degrees, would qualify Las Vegas for large events that it couldn’t attract previously, including major league soccer, the NCAA’s basketball Final Four, political conventions, perhaps multiple college football bowl games, even NFL preseason games.

[...]

http://www.mwcconnection.com/2011/2/...rict-on-campus



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[skyscraperhighrise]

I Personally can't wait to be in las vegas, perhaps next year.

[korisnicko ime]

http://youtu.be/WaAvn7C0JVE

[saiholmes]

[saiholmes]

Originally Posted by VEGAS INC

DesertXpress inks deal to add train link from Victorville to Palmdale, making travel to L.A. possible
By Richard N. Velotta (contact)
Thursday, 7 June 2012, 10:54 a.m.

A seamless high-speed rail system linking Las Vegas with downtown Los Angeles is the goal adopted today by representatives of DesertXpress and the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority.

DesertXpress Enterprises already is trying to build a high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and Victorville, Calif. A new agreement signed today makes possible a second leg, linking Victorville to Palmdale, Calif., and eventually Los Angeles.

DesertXpress and MTA representatives signed documents that open the door to the Las Vegas-Los Angeles route. The agreement includes a strategy to plan and build a 50-mile high-speed line between Victorville and Palmdale, which would initially connect to Metrolink tracks and eventually be the connection point to California’s planned high-speed rail system.

The DesertXpress plan is part of a larger strategy envisioned by the Las Vegas-centered Western High Speed Rail Alliance to eventually tie into a regional high-speed rail network with routes to Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Denver.

Read More: http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2012/ju...-victorville-/

[LCIII]

What are the must sees in Vegas right now? I'm talking architecture here. I'm in town through Sunday and want to see the best Vegas has to offer.