Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Posted by mike_ch

God, THEplace is such a stinkeroo. Does anyone really want to live this far south from the action? From the filing:

"The plans are for a 520 foot tall, high-rise tower with 1,344 resort condominiums including kitchens to be known as The Place."

Using the data from SkyscraperPage, Mandalay's main tower is 146.3 meters to the roof, or 480 feet tall. With it's placement, this virtually guarantees that everyone in all floors of Mandalay Bay as well as the HOB Foundation Room are going to lose their great view and instead get a look straight at a condo building with some stuff behind it.

All the talk about taking parking from Luxor suggests they're talking about the parking near the tram station, and I've never seen how to get there, I've always assumed it was employee parking. Still, that area is where the walkway to the Strip sidewalk is, and is where you'll find all those Egypt-themed statues and artwork/heiroglyphs in the walls. Oh well.

"The existing tram line will be removed and realigned to accommodate this project."

Removed, I can see. Realigned, well, I hope so. Remember they've been wanting to tie up their monopoly of the west strip with elevated transportation for a while. They seem to be doing a pretty good job with the Bellagio/MC tram, and are building it a new track around CC for it. I just keep going back to their pipe dream where they want to tie their whole west-side monopoly with elevated transport. Of course, if the Tracinda thing signals a breakup of the properties it doesn't matter I guess.

"UC-1219-03 was a request for outdoor decorative water features that was withdrawn."

Anyone know what this was? I'm curious.

Anyway, I get the county TV station, and I don't know if the discussion on these kinds of things appear on the TV? It says 6/6/07 on the top, and channel 4 shows a Planning Commission and Zoning Commission meeting (or at least a repeat of one) airing that day, but I remember watching these waiting for someone to talk about the proposed supertall a few months ago and not getting anything from it.

Posted by Dave

That Casino Royale expansion will revolutionize the Strip, I'm sure.

Seriously, I wonder how marketing for THEplace ties in with Signature/Residences @ MGM Grand and Project City Center. Is this where they'll steer the overflow from those projects?

Mike, about your concerns about ruining the view from the Foundation Room--I'm not sure if the 200-ft setback puts the tower behind Mandalay Bay or right next to it. I'd guess that they're moving the tram to make room for the podium level, and that the 200 feet puts it at most in line with the main Mandalay Tower. You can judge for yourself by looking here:
http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=mandalay+Bay+Las+Vegas&ie=UTF8&ll=36.095372,-115.172918&spn=0.006311,0.010042&t=h&z=17&om=1&layer=c&cbll=36.093901,-115.172772&cbp=1,277.659163987138,0.5,0
Hopefully the new "street view" feature on Google Maps will work there.

I just discovered Street View today and I've been going wild with it. I used it to look at my house, which was actually a little creepy, even though it seemed to be an old picture--at least six months old, I'd guess.

I'm waiting for Casino Royale to add a couple additional levels on top of the existing structure for condos. Who wouldn't want to live just steps away from Denny's?

I cannot believe MGM is going to go ahead with the condos at Mandalay Bay. The Mandalay Bay is a pretty nice place but last time I was there it was looking quite worn and tired. I suppose this new tower will be nice but it would not be at the top of my list if i were buying a condo.

Yeah, honestly I was surprised that they were going ahead with this project as well. It seems a bit ill-concieved and I've thought that from the start.

Posted by detroit1051

James Packer's PBL is now part of Milam Tower:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/pbl-buys-another-crown--in-vegas/2007/05/31/1180205425192.html

Posted by Mark D

Wow! Packer's also in on the Fontainebleau next door. In the article they say there might be a design change and a name change.

Posted by Dave

Thanks for the link, Detroit. Before I clicked over, I'm thinking, "As long as they don't call it the Crown," so of course right at the front of the story they say that it's going to be called the Crown Las Vegas. I'm all for old school but that's just a boring name. It makes me think of this:
http://gaming.unlv.edu/v_museum/photoarchive/coinking.jpg
Not exactly a $5 billion image, huh.

It doesn't seem that Packer is committed to the tower, which is probably wise. All in all, this is a positive for Strip casinos.

Funny that they still think the north end is "less fashionable." The New Frontier site isn't exactly across town, and that's what got the $38 million.

Posted by Mark D

"Cogent? - Anyone know what this is?" - Hunter

That's on the edge of China Town and will have Asian architecture. There's a much larger project a little further west on that side of Spring Mountain called "Dragon City Resort", also with Asian architecture, with 2,500 condo/hotel rooms, and have FIFTY (50) restaurants according to the plans. It was on the agendas a few months ago. Don't know if that was ever mentioned before since I'm still new here. I think it would be cool if China Town spread to the other side of the street, right now it's just a bunch of auto repair shops and places like that.

Posted by mike_ch

Maybe it's because I'm originally from the bay area where there's an enormous, thriving multicultural community but here the phrase "chinatown" doesn't really jive what I see in that area. Oh, of course there's actual Chinese people and establishments there, but there's also plenty of chain stores in these strip malls gussied up with fancy roofs to make them look foreign. I was amused to find out that Chinatown is where my Netflix discs are shipped back to.

That said, any developer who doesn't know too much about the city could look around the area and say "sure enough, Chinatown. I oughta build something here" but we'll see how it goes. I suppose my survey of the area could be wrong as well, but this certainly is no San Fran.

detroit: This was also reported in today's RJ. NOW we know WHERE Milam is getting his financing from! Seems like Packer wants to enter L.V. big time when you include his joint-venture partnershp in Fontainebleau. The LVT, "Crown" or whatever its going to be called will be the first SUPERTALL here, even if it ends up reduced to 142 floors. I've herad that it might still pass FAA approval even at the original height of 1,888'. Considering that Packer is the wealtiest person in Australia, you can pretty much assume that this project is definitily moving forward. I get my information directly from THE source, that being the architects, so when I reported months ago that Milam had authorized his designers (Adrian Smith) to proceed with the design development stage after completing the schematics, I knew [he] he was pretty sure of obtaining financing. This is very positive news, in ten years Las Vegas will become the "Dubai" of the U.S. with supertalls evrywhere along the Strip after they relocate McCarran + build the new airport!

Here's the article in the RJ re Milam LVT:

http://www.lvrj.com/business/7782551.html

Posted by mike_ch

You can bet your sweet bippy that the Packer fund isn't interested in that supertall.

We've already proven that just having a calling card that sticks way high up into the air isn't a recipe for success in this town. The Crown people will undoubtedly see such a building as unnecessary costs and will want to have a place that will

Why spend the exorbitant amounts of money required for building suites 1500 feet in the air when you could have that much of a better resort downstairs where it really counts?

Posted by mike_ch

Oops, I forgot to complete my sentence back there. Point was, they can have better rooms, better casino, better resort, etc or they can have hotel rooms at the 1200'+ level. Since the Packer people aren't strangers to building casino resorts, I figure it's easy to see which one they'll choose.

I agree with mike_ch, I bet all he wants is that land locked in at a nice price point for "Fontainebleau 2" etc. And besides if PBL now has a 37.5% stake, and York bought a stake also, Milam is probably no longer the majority owner and is now beholden to what his new partners want.

Posted by Mark D

In one of the news reports it said that Milam was still leading the project. Crown will manage the casino, so probably have nothing to do with the hotel, and I wonder if the design changes mentioned are just in the casino to accommodate their preferences. York is just investing money with no management input, as far as I can tell. I predict LVT1 will also bring in a hotelier partner to run the most luxurious section of the hotel. In the first interview with Milam, back in December, he said that he intended to build it, run it for a couple years and then sell it. So Packer might buy him out further down the road after they start making some money.

Posted by Mark D

Oops, I spoke too soon. I just found the original press release from PBL and it says that Crown will manage both the casino AND the hotel.
http://www.pbl.com.au/pbl_to_coinvest_in_new_las_vegas_casino_development.htm

Posted by detroit1051

Only $5 Million an acre?
Miami developer plans non-gaming condo, hotel development on Paradise Road. The site must be just south of the LV Convention Center since the story says it's across the street from Wynn's golf course. Four 55 story buildings? Pretty dense.
"The project, designed by Miami architectural firm Arquitectonica, is slated to include four, 55-story towers. Plans call for 800 hotel suites, 1,000 condominium units, shops and restaurants."
http://www.miamiherald.com/152/story/131200.html

Posted by detroit1051

The RJ catches up on the Paradise Road project. Is it for real???
"How many times have I heard this?" Las Vegas real estate consultant John Restrepo asked. "He's never done anything close to $2.5 billion and all of his stuff is back East in Miami. I don't see any experience. Who knows what his role was in these other projects. He could be real or he could be the Miami version of Victor Altomare."
http://www.lvrj.com/business/7917507.html

For those interested in what the Fontainebleau might have to offer, the tv show TOP CHEF has all of the contestants staying in the penthouse suite in Miami. About 15 minutes into the first episode, they arrive at the suite.
Do we know if the LV version is going to have balconies?

Posted by Mark D

Yes, it will have balconies in the middle.
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=13750740&postcount=76

Posted by detroit1051

More press on Packer's 1,888 foot tower:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22123039-643,00.html

In the unlikely event that LVT/Crown actually gets approved I wonder what they'll do when they find out it won't really be the tallest building in North America. That distinction will belong to the Chicago Spire at 2000', which started foundation work in the past couple weeks.

By the way, do journalists bother doing even rudimentary fact checking any more?