During the height of the Great Recession, most developments ground to a halt in the Las Vegas Valley, and many skeletons of stalled and dead projects marred the landscape.
Local unemployment peaked at 16.1 percent during the worst of the recession, but it since has gone down drastically, reaching 6.1 percent in May. As the area’s construction pace picks up and more developments are completed, even more jobs will be added to the local economy over the long term.
With record visitation levels and near 90 percent hotel occupancy rates year-round on the Las Vegas Strip, many of the recently vacated properties and projects have been revived and soon will cast a new shadow in the Mojave Desert.
Through 2018, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) shows more than $10 billion in local developments are slated to be completed, with 2018 expected to be a particularly banner year.
Genting Berhad is converting the remaining skeletons of Boyd Gaming’s $4 billion Echelon Place project into the Asian-themed Resorts World Las Vegas, with a late-2018 opening planned.
This year, some $751 million in Las Vegas-area construction projects are slated for completion, with the $365 million T-Mobile Arena and companion The Park already having opened. Also scheduled to open this year is a 5,500-seat theater at the Monte Carlo.
The first ground-up casino project in nearly a decade also is scheduled to open this year when the Lucky Dragon eventually opens its doors on West Sahara Avenue, between the Las Vegas Strip and the I-15.
Although located near the Las Vegas Strip, the Asian-themed casino and hotel is a relatively small development by Strip standards, at $373 million. The casino’s 206-room boutique hotel would raise the area’s total hotel room count to 149,477, according to the LVCVA.
Next year, the LVCVA indicates some $2.06 billion in development projects are slated for completion, including the 75,518-square-foot Wynn Plaza addition and three-story and the 75,000-square-foot Enclave events center.
The Wynn Plaza is slated to increase total luxury retail space at Wynn Resorts to more than 173,000 square feet. The Enclave is located at 5800 South Eastern Ave., and will provide flexible events space conveniently located near the airport.
The LVCVA includes the stalled All Net Resort and Arena and its estimated $1.4 billion price tag among the $2.06 billion in developments slated to open next year. Former NBA player and entrepreneur Jackie Robinson pitched the idea a couple years ago, but a lack of funding killed it.
Robinson proposed building it on land behind the SLS Las Vegas and next to the north terminus of the Las Vegas Monorail. It could, however, be replaced by a potential 17,500-seat arena that Las Vegas Sands recently proposed in the roughly the same location.
Activity likely will resume soon on the abandoned and empty Fontainebleau Las Vegas, which investor Carl Icahn anticipates selling this year for about $650 million. Its completion would cost an estimated $2 billion.
An even more likely replacement for the All Net Arena development dollars is the anticipated sale and eventual completion of the former Fontainebleau Las Vegas. The empty, 68-story Fontainebleau is the second-highest structure in Las Vegas, next to the nearby Stratosphere, and towers over the north end of the Las Vegas Strip.
Work on it stopped in 2008, and it is designed to hold 3,889 rooms, plus a convention center, casino, retail space, and other amenities.
Investor Carl Icahn bought the bankrupted Fontainebleau development for $150 million in 2010 and hopes to turn an about $500 million profit by selling it for an asking price of $650 million. The real estate brokerage handling the listing anticipates selling the Fontainebleau sometime this year, possibly by the end of the summer.
If the anticipated sale occurs, its new owner would need to spend an anticipated $2 billion to complete it, which more than would make up for the defunct All Net Arena development dollars the LVCVA anticipated for the local economy.
If even half the projects slated for completion in 2018 occur, the year will be among the biggest development-wise in Las Vegas History, as some $6.15 billion in projects are scheduled to be finished.
Work is yet to start on Crown Resort’s $2 billion Alon Las Vegas development, which is located just south of the Resorts World development.
In 2018, the LVCVA shows total Las Vegas area development slated to be completed including phase one of the $4 billion Resorts World Las Vegas and $2 billion Alon Las Vegas, located next to Resorts World site and near the Trump Las Vegas hotel.
Thus far, virtually no work has occurred at the Alon site, where James Packer’s Crown Resorts wants to build a casino with twin towers and a 1,100-room hotel. While Crown Resorts has a good history of completing its intended projects, financing issues reportedly have stalled it for at least a short while. That makes its 2018 opening date unlikely.
By contrast, contractors for Genting Berhad are moving ground and working on utility infrastructure in preparation for the ramp-up to full construction by the end of the year on its Resorts World Las Vegas development.
Genting has received the permits and approvals it needs to convert Boyd Gaming’s abandoned Echelon Place project into one the China-themed Resorts World Las Vegas, with a 3,500-room hotel adding to the area’s room total. It initially planned a late 2018 opening of the first phase of the Resorts World Las Vegas development, but that target date might be too optimistic.
Regardless whether it opens in late 2018 or 2019, given the improved local economy and future outlook, Resorts World will have a significant impact during its construction and after its eventual opening.
Beyond 2018, the LVCVA shows the $1.6 billion Wynn Paradise Park is scheduled to open on the site of the current Wynn Resorts golf course. No work has begun on the water park, and its plans include a 1,000-room hotel, retail space, and a lagoon ringed by a mile of white sand beach.
Not included in the LVCVA’s local development, but just as certain to have a positive impact on the Las Vegas economy is the Faraday Future electric car plant. The $1 billion project is going up in an industrial park in the northeast area of North Las Vegas, is expected to open in 2018, and generate some 13,500 direct and related jobs, most of them full-time positions.
Another potential boon for the local economy is the proposed 65,000-seat stadium with retractable roof for some $1.4 billion. Estimated construction costs do not include possible land-acquisition costs.
Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis wants his team to play in it after current lease options in Oakland expire in three years, and Las Vegas Sands’ Sheldon Adelson wants it built.
Finding a site and funding is the problem, but several options are under consideration, and a proposed about $1 per-day increase in hotel room taxes might be needed to pay for it. If those problems can be resolved, and the NFL okays the Raiders’ proposed move to Las Vegas, yet another large development is certain to get underway soon.
The many developments planned and underway bode well for the short-term future of the Las Vegas area economy, while helping to ensure it is better diversified and more capable of withstanding economic downturns.
The developments on the north end of the Las Vegas Strip will eliminate the remaining skeletons of the Great Recession in that part of the city.
At the south end of the Las Vegas Strip, another abandoned project soon may be all that remains to mark the impact of the Great Recession on Las Vegas
The 38.5-acre site of the abandoned SkyVue observation wheel project soon might be the only reminder of the Great Recession’s impact on the Las Vegas Strip.
The SkyVue observation wheel was to compete with the High-Roller for tourist traffic and stunning views of the Las Vegas Strip. A groundbreaking was held on May 2011, but work didn’t really begin for another year, and then stalled permanently after workers erected two struts rising 247 feet into the air, and anchors for the 500-foot-tall observation wheel.
Local developer Howard Bulloch anticipated spending $300 million to build the observation wheel. Now, he wants about $385 million for the 38.5 acres on which the observation wheel was to be built.
Despite being located near McCarran International Airport, the site can be developed to just over 500 feet in height, and the current wheel struts rise not quite half that distance into the air.
Once the SkyVue property is bought and its two rebar-crowned struts removed, with it will go the final trace of the Great Recession on the Las Vegas Strip.
