LAS VEGAS (AP) — A developer’s desire to open a resort on the Las Vegas Strip with an ambiance echoing Miami Beach’s venerable Fontainebleau becomes reality Wednesday, with the opening of a hotel-casino tower of 67 floors which became famous because it remained unfinished for more than a decade.
“Bringing Fontainebleau Las Vegas to life has been an extraordinary adventure,” said Jeffrey Soffer, who started the project, lost it and bought it back to complete it. “Opening a complex of this size and scope is a unique experience. experience.”
The Fontainebleau is the tallest, newest and bluest hotel in Southern Nevada’s glittering resort corridor. At $3.7 billion, it is the second most expensive after the $4.3 billion 66-story buildings. Resorts World open in June 2021 just steps from Las Vegas Boulevard.
The name of the 3,644-room Fontainebleau recalls Miami Beach’s icon among resorts, which the Soffer family acquired in 2005. But the project in the Mojave Desert has its own tradition of starts, stops and of change of ownership since the start of work in 2007.
Soffer, the president of Miami-based Fontainebleau Development, lost funding during the Great Recession and abandoned the project in 2009, with the building about 70 percent complete.
Various new owners stepped in, including famed financier Carl Icahn and New York developer Steven Witkoff. The latter announced in 2018 its intention to rethink and rename the station The Drewbut progress stalled again during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, unused, the imposing shell of a building with an incomplete street-facing facade was occasionally used by area firefighters for height rescue training. Last July, as work progressed towards opening, a smoky fire on the roof triggered the alarm but caused little damage.
Soffer and Fontainebleau Développement bought the project in 2021 and in partnership with Koch Real Estate Investments to finance and complete it.
He called the completion “the realization of a long-held dream and a testament to the spirit of our brand, which has existed for seven decades.”
The resort that awaits guests and players just before midnight Wednesday includes a bow tie theme that is an homage to the standard ties of Morris Lapidus, architect of the Miami resort that opened in 1954.
“Art, architecture and design are key elements of our Fontainebleau culture and our guests’ experience,” Brett Mufson, president of Fontainebleau Development, said in a statement before the opening.
Mark Tricano, president of Fontainebleau Las Vegas, told state gambling regulators last month that the resort would employ more than 7,000 workers. The property has 1,300 slot machines, 128 gaming tables and more than 36 bars and restaurants, some featuring chefs hailing from Miami. Officials said hotel room rates for the opening started at about $300 per night.
The structure is the tallest habitable building in Nevada and the second tallest in Las Vegas, behind the nearby Strat Tower observation deck at 1,149 feet (350 meters).
The Fontainebleau was built on the site of the El Rancho Hotel, which dates from 1948 and was imploded in 2000 after Soffer and condo developer Turnberry Associates purchased it. Plans to build a British-themed hotel-casino with replicas of the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace were abandoned after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Fontainebleau is adjacent to the newest section of the Las Vegas Convention Center, a billion-dollar expansion that opened in January 2021, and offers views of the Strip from the Well-lit sphere concert and entertainment venue which opened in September.
Ken Ritter, Associated Press
