Remember that second tower of Allure Condo Las Vegas that was supposed to be built, then was scrapped? It’s back … after a fashion. Developer Andrew Fonfa has consolidated the 2.3 acres where Allure Phase II was to have gone (at a cost of $17.4 million) and intends to build a 1,340-unit condo/casino/hotel tower, with the emphasis on “hotel.” There will be nine stories’ worth of underground parking and a 67,800-square-foot casino floor. Other amenities will include a health club, a showroom and a 37,000-square-foot convention center.
Presumably because of the project’s small footprint, the casino, restaurants, retail, back-of-house operations and showroom will be stacked through the first eight floors, with hotel rooms and condo units starting on the ninth floor. The property owner, Sahara Investments LLC, has requested — among other things — a non-restricted casino license and a zoning variance within the McCarran Airport overlay, following in the footsteps of the Christopher Milam-James Packer Crown Las Vegas tower.
S&G has obtained copies of the justification letter sent to the City of Las Vegas and of the building plans. The letter characterizes the planned hotel-casino as providing “quality new hotel-casino and residential development in the Downtown area.” I dunno about you, but in my experience the nexus of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue is a heckuva long way from Downtown proper … barely within city limits, in fact.
Oscar to farmers: Drop dead! Although the local chapter of the Flat Earth Society has put down its quill pens long enough to jeer at a Scripps Institution of Oceanography study of falling water levels in Lake Mead, the study continues to gain traction in terms of public discourse.
Well, I’m not sure the latest from Mayor Oscar Goodman might be called “discourse,” but Hizzoner sure spoke his mind, as he is wont to do. With characteristic Goodmanesque tact, he proclaimed that “Imperial Valley farmers will have their fields go fallow before our spigots run dry.”
Needless to say, Hizzoner’s comments kicked up quite a ruckus in Southern California, roiling age-old tensions. Seems to me like all concerned would be better occupied coming up with proactive solutions (did anyone say “desalinization”?) than squabbling over a dwindling supply of water from the Colorado River, at least until the good Lord sees fit to replenish the snow packs and other sources of H2O that used to feed Lake Mead.
