Have they broken ground for the $850 million high rise “Majestic Wellness Hotel” on the vacant lot where the Debbie Reynolds Hotel was?
No, they haven’t.
Ironically, for a hotel dedicated to wellness, the Majestic fell victim to the pandemic. Groundbreaking had been scheduled for April or May, when the Strip was in a deep freeze, even though construction had been deemed an essential activity.
Once the Majestic does get going — and at $850 million, it’s not a sure thing — it will take three years to complete.
There have been several “Majestics” in recent Strip history.
The first was a 645-unit condo proposed for the site of the La Concha Motel, the latter to be moved and converted into the Neon Museum. This Majestic dates from 2001 and was the brainchild of Lorenzo Doumani, the one constant among all these iterations.
The second was the Majestic Resorts & Residences, a Doumani-Hilton Hotels partnership on $250 million worth of Strip condos,
accompanied by a $100 million all-suite Conrad Hotel. Neither tower was planned to have a casino. Construction was anticipated to launch in 2004 for a 2006 opening.
The third was a revised one-tower Majestic/Conrad that would have consolidated condos and hotel rooms. (During this version, the La Concha lobby — yet to be relocated — was repurposed as a sales office.)
A re-redesign, announced in September 2005, included a 60-story 500-suite Conrad. Groundbreaking was pushed back to mid-2006.
Then it was a single tower comprising Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria, and Majestic hotels, all in a 654-foot skyscraper. In the autumn of 2007, Hilton pulled out and Doumani sold the land to Canadian developers Triple Five. Doumani got an eye-popping $33 million an acre for his troubles. The land remains undeveloped and much litigation followed, thereby postponing …
Majestic Wellness.
Doumani's next variation is a Clarion Hotel & Casino (a misleading name, as it was only a slot route), the current site of the Majestic. His plans call for 45 stories and 720 rooms, 10 floors of medical offices, a spa, and six restaurants. Doumani’s stated goal is to create the most high-end resort (30 corporate suites) in the U.S. — a lofty ambition on lonely Convention Center Drive. Wall Street is leery of big-ticket Strip projects at the moment (witness the recent demise of The Drew); much will also depend on the expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center, putting potential clients at Doumani’s front door.
But we’ll see if the sixth time is the charm.
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alohafri
Jul-15-2020
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