Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

I'm a bit confused as to where they plan to build this thing. The Palazzo seems to take up all available space on that smaller lot or are they planning a to put it somewhere else on the Venetian property?

I'm pretty sure the space for this is already in the model, they're just announcing what they plan to do with it... That's my guess.

Maybe its the small spine down the back of The Palazzo that comprises these condos.

Not sure I would want to own one, it might take 3 years for basic maintenence.

This is very strange. The story says its a 50 story tower up for approval? There is no other 50 story tower in the model, unless I just overlooked a building that is 50 stories tall! This is typical LVS. Will this delay the project another year? Or are they just going to open up, and still have a crane out front, building another 50 story tower in front of this one? They are just amazing!

I'm pretty sure that the the 50-story tower they're talking about is the main hotel tower and that these condos are actually on the South side of the property, between the new porte cochere and The Venetian, based on what I can figure out.

Posted by detroit1051

In Hunter's photo, linked below, isn't the "bank-looking" building in the right foreground Barney's store? If it is, will there be a 50 story tower on top of it? The Sun story says there will be 370 luxury condos. That's about 8 condos per floor.
http://www.ratevegas.com/photo/show/2344

I believe that's the correct building, yes.

If they are actually plopping a 50 story building on top of that... man...

I haven't been reading the Planning Commission Agendas recently - they really are a good read.

This addition will be 632 feet high and be a glass curtain wall with metal and glass balconies, the same wording used to describe the main tower...

The text:

"This request is an addition to the airspace above the area previously approved, and will add three additional floors of non-residential use that will contain back-of-house and 45,842 additional square feet of public areas that will include the sky lobby, retail, restaurant, lounge and spa areas, with the resort condominiums on the floors above. This request makes no modifications to the already approved site plan, and all previously approved landscaping will be provided per plans. Adjacent to Las Vegas Boulevard South is a 30 foot wide pedestrian realm area with a 15 foot wide detached sidewalk. In addition to the sidewalk, the applicant will provide an 11 foot wide planter strip to separate pedestrian traffic from vehicular traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard South, decorative paving, and an additional 4 feet of landscaping behind the sidewalk to compliment adjacent landscape areas on other parcels."

Also, I see that Bellagio LLC (the operating entity for Bellagio that strangely also holds some CityCenter assets - the MGM ownership structures are pretty complex) has applied to change all the landscaping between Bellagio and the Sobella (South of Bellagio - get it?) tower at CityCenter.

Here's Bellagio's description:

"The plans depict detailed landscaping of Block C (Sobella) of the CityCenter Project, an approved resort hotel/casino. The most dominant theme along Las Vegas Boulevard South is the 15 foot wide pedestrian realm with a detached sidewalk as approved with previous land use applications. In addition to the 15 foot pedestrian realm, the plans depict additional pedestrian supplementary areas that extend to the footprint of the buildings. A 15 foot pedestrian realm is also featured on the future private street (Casino Avenue), but instead of providing one tree 20 feet on center, and shrubs covering 50% of the landscaped area with ground cover, the applicant has chosen to cluster the trees closer to building entrances leaving a 15 foot wide unobstructed sidewalk. The landscape on Block C features a variety of trees and shrubs and in some areas the planting of vines under a fabricated net that controls the vines growth and stabilizes the dirt underneath. The sidewalks are either concrete or natural stone or a combination of the two depending on the location. The applicant proposes a 4 foot high pedestrian barrier with hand rails along Las Vegas Boulevard South within the right-of-way. The purpose of the barrier is to keep vehicles from intruding into the walkways and prevent pedestrians from jaywalking into Las Vegas Boulevard South. The barrier extends on to the private central street (Casino Avenue) where pedestrians can cross the street using an elevated pedestrian bridge. The applicant has agreed to a license and maintenance agreement with Clark County to maintain the landscaping, barriers, and handrails within the right-of-way."

Lastly, permits for the monorail extension to the airport:

"The plans depict a proposed 4.2 mile privately operated elevated monorail system from the MGM Resort Hotel to McCarran International Airport. The proposed corridor is an extension of the existing Monorail System with a route that begins on the east side of the existing MGM parking garage on the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Koval Lane. The western portion of the corridor extends north along Koval Lane (either along the east property line of the MGM or within the right-of-way) to Harmon Avenue. A station is proposed parallel to Tropicana Avenue which is a transfer station to be used in conjunction with the existing station at MGM Grand. The corridor proceeds east along Harmon Avenue mostly within the right-of way with stations/terminals proposed on the approved W Resort Hotel site and at the existing Hard Rock Resort Hotel site. Both stations are located on the north side of Harmon Avenue. The corridor crosses Paradise Road and continues east to Swenson Street. At this intersection, the corridor proceeds south along Swenson Avenue located either within, or on the east side of the right-of-way. An additional station is proposed on the site of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, adjacent to the Thomas and Mack center to serve the university and the events center. The corridor continues south across Tropicana Avenue and past Hacienda Avenue into McCarran International Airport proceeding south and then east to its terminus at a maintenance facility along the Russell Road alignment. Two stations are proposed at the Airport, the first station is at Terminal 1 (main terminal) at the north side of the parking garage and the second station is at the proposed Terminal 3, located between the terminal building and a parking garage. A maintenance building and switch facilities are located at the Airport to reserve the vehicles on the guideways."

Posted by detroit1051

It looks like the condos are a done deal. In every Las Vegas Sands project, they try to cut back on the required number of parking spaces. As good an operator as LVS is, I always feel I need to wash my hands after reading about them.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Nov-07-Tue-2006/business/10662908.html

If LVS gets the go ahead to build this tower right on the strip, why wouldn't Wynn build a residential/hotel tower where the main garage is? A narrow residential tower would sit nicely between Wynn and Encore.

Does this mean the monorail extension to the airport is moving forward? I thought that was a long way off? I don't know that I would use it, but that would be cool!

I am no engineer but I believe that if Wynn Resorts wanted to put a tower on top of the parking garage, that would have had to have been factored in from day one, as the load spreading parts of the building would have been engineered differently.

LVS did this with the Venetian garage - Venezia was always part of the plan (phase 1B).

One place you might see something like that though is the parking garage on LVB between The Mirage and TI. MGM MIRAGE keeps classifying that as under-developed land in their reports to Wall Street.

Also good to note that LVS is renovating the rooms in the original tower at The Venetian and they expect that to be completed when Palazzo opens (Fall 2007).

I missed this in the coverage of LVS but, as I wondered in a posting a few weeks back, they are adding rooms to the Sands Macau.

They are putting in another 240 rooms into a $100MM 39 story tower. They currently have 50 rooms and the new tower will be done Summer of 2007.

Very interesting.

Posted by detroit1051

The Incredible Shrinking Parking Space:
The two worst parking garages in Las Vegas are Venetian and MGM Grand. I'd never park my own car in either one.
"Reduce the dimensions for parking spaces in the parking garage from 9 feet by 18 feet to 8.5 feet by 17 feet."
http://dsnet.co.clark.nv.us/dsnetapps/agendaweb/Data/P0194240.htm.
http://www.valleyblogs.com/mckee/2006-11-07/id_1817

Posted by mike_ch

Venetian is terrible, feels a lot like downtwon in a bad way, but I submit Caesars and Monte Carlo as follow-up winners.

Wasn't MC's parking garage imploded not too long ago?

Yes, it's gone to make way for a new 7,000 space lot for MC and CityCenter.

Posted by Mark D

I just posted the first rendering of the condo tower over at SSC
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=13582734&postcount=910

Posted by detroit1051

Mark D, thank you for the rendering. Until now, I couldn't figure out how the entire property would look. Now that I've seen it, the condo tower bothers me. It detracts from the appearance of the entire retail area leading back to Palazzo, and the tower doesn't seem to complement either the Venetian or Palazzo. This is my reaction as a layman. You're an artist; what's your opinion?

Posted by Mark D

I don't think it will detract from the entrance to the retail area, detroit1051, because that's a gigantic Barney's department store it's sitting on top of, and it looks like there will be big department store display windows lining the Strip at street level. As for the design, when they first announced it the plans called for a "modern" glass curtain wall design, and I thought it would clash terribly with the old-world look of the existing buildings, but it's not quite that bad now that I see it, though generally I don't care much for vertical lines on skyscrapers or windows of different sizes, but they can be done right. At least this isn't overly garish like that Conrad-Majestic-Astoria design.

I hope it's just the rendering. That's one ugly tower.