Las Vegas developer begins work on condo-casino complex

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October 26, 2005

Las Vegas developer begins work on condo-casino complex

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Passing melons on a stick and iced cappuccinos, developers broke ground Tuesday on the $1.8 billion Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino, a hotel-condominium-casino complex they say will bring "a distinct lifestyle experience" to the Las Vegas Strip.

"The sheer 'verticality' of this development as it towers 600 feet above the Strip is more akin to the urban terrain of Manhattan, or other cosmopolitan cities around the world," developer Ian Bruce Eichner said.

The two-tower complex, similar in height to the Wynn Las Vegas resort and Donald Trump's proposed condominium project, will be on 8.5 acres between the Bellagio hotel-casino and the planned MGM Mirage CityCenter project.

It will one of the first "mixed-use" high-rise developments on the Strip when it opens its doors in 2008. A tower of more than 1,300 luxury condominiums sold out in 120 days, Eichner told a small crowd of real estate brokers at groundbreaking ceremony.

The complex, dominated by sky blue glass, also will include a 75,000 square-foot casino, 300,000-square-feet of retail and restaurants, a 50,000- square-foot spa and fitness center and a 5-acre pool deck dubbed "the adult playground."

Architect Bernardo Fort-Brescia said he designed the building to be transparent, inviting and reminiscent of high-rises on boulevards in Paris or New York. The front facade is a wall of glass panes with an entrance that opens on to the sidewalk.

"Let's bring in the public and flow the city into the building," he said, noting that many other casinos on the Strip were set back from the street like suburban houses. "I tried to define the avenue as an avenue, not as a highway."

The Cosmopolitan Hotel & Resort will be operated by Hyatt Corporation, which operates a hotel-casino at Lake Las Vegas, about 22 miles out of town.

"We've been working on trying to get a location here on the Strip for several decades," Hyatt CEO Thomas Pritzker said.

The project is being developed by the Las Vegas-based group 3700 Associates, a partnership that includes Eichner as chief executive; its president, David Friedman, a former executive at The Venetian where he served as assistant to Sheldon Adelson; and an affiliate of Dune Capital Management LP, which provided the majority of the capital.

Eichner, best known for high-rise developments in South Beach, Fla. and Manhattan, recently began sales on a second tower of luxury condominiums at the Continuum on South Beach, a 40-story, $270 million development on Miami Beach.