McGraw-Hill construction correspondent Tony Illia kindly provided us with a list of projects, some of which are recent, while others are years away. For instance, earlier this year, developer Brett Torino opened Harmon Crossing, a $100 million retail mall, 10% of whose construction cost went to an enormous video screen that dominates the Harmon Avenue/Las Vegas Strip intersection. SH Architecture managed to cram 110,184 square feet of retail into two-plus acres of land left over after Harmon Avenue had been rerouted to the northeast. Almost a fifth of that space is home to a vast Walgreens, but sensation-of-the-moment Goretorium has also set up shop there.
The year after next, the Nevada Department of Transportation plans to break ground on $1.8 billion, 20-year Project Neon. Among its goals: improved connectivity between I-15 and U.S. 95 (scene of frequent accidents and snarls), better traffic flow on slow-as-molasses Charleston Boulevard, and 13 new highway lanes.
Another big-ticket item, $1.5 billion Union Village, has missed its targeted, early autumn groundbreaking but is closing its purchase of 150 acres from the City of Henderson. Union Village, which would sit near Sunset Station, is an "integrated health village" that literally takes 60 pages to describe. It will combine retirement housing, medical offices, and taverns -- we kid you not. So massive is its scale that the first phase alone will take at least four years to complete.
The closest thing to a big-ticket item in the casino industry is the $550 million Caesars Entertainment and its joint-venture partners are putting into a mid-market retail and dining mall, Linq. O’Shea’s has been demolished and Imperial Palace gutted to make room for Linq, which will lead to a 550-foot-tall Ferris wheel (the "Vegas High Roller") out back of the Flamingo Las Vegas. Construction has another year to go.
Some projects exist in theory but we assign a low probability to them. Case in point: SLS Las Vegas, a $300 million attempt to reinvent the defunct Sahara as a high-end, 1,600-room hotel-casino catering to the youth market. Owner Sam Nazarian, however, has never held a gaming license and his financing is highly conditional. For instance, much of it hinges on obtaining EB-5 visas for prospective employers. In other words, as a condition of getting overseas investment, Nazarian plans to import much of his workforce, too. The location could also be generously described as "difficult," surrounded by blight on every side.
Two curious spires opposite Mandalay Bay denote Howard Bulloch’s SkyVue Observation Wheel, $210 million rival to Linq’s Ferris wheel. Bulloch will have the advantage of less-obstructed views and has, to date, made more progess on his wheel than Caesars has. However, little activity can be seen on the site at present. Bulloch says it’s because the components are being made elsewhere, from Arizona to Belgium, but recent reports allege that the company owes more than $40 million in unpaid bills to lenders for the land parcel next door to the site, to prisoners hired as welding labor on the project, and to the state, for the use of prison facilities and staff, and has at least three federal tax liens against it (see "Today's News" 10/10/12).
As UNLV Center for Gaming Research Director David Schwartz cautioned KLAS-TV, "Up until a couple of years ago, it was even easy to get topped off. But if you look at Fontainebleau, that's a reminder that just because you're doing construction doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to finish it."
If you prefer to have your fun closer to the ground, a $50 million water park is planned for 7055 Fort Apache Road, with a May 2013 opening targeted – just in time for the hot weather. The 21-slide attraction will be called Wet ‘n Wild, in honor of the much-missed aquatic park that used to grace the Strip.
And if you’re a Southwest Airlines customer visiting Sin City, there’s good news. The ancient (circa 1985) C Gates at McCarran International Airport will get a $13 million beauty treatment. The venerable terminal will lose a few gates in return for a Life Is Good store and a Pei Wei restaurant, scheduled to be unveiled in a month. (McCarran has to monetize these upgrades, after all.) Lighting, carpeting, ceilings, air conditioning, and video displays will be replaced, although it remains to be seen how much of the C Gates’ claustrophobic layout can be alleviated.
Tomorrow: A slate of upgrades on the Strip … and several in downtown, as well.
