New hotel casino projects on the Las Vegas Strip can sometimes take more than a decade complete or even get underway.
One marathon development on the Strip was the Fontainebleau Las Vegas hotel and casino. The Fontainebleau's development history began in 2007, but soon after that the Great Recession hit, forcing the project into bankruptcy and halting construction before the project was finished.
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The project stood unfinished for over 10 years, ownership changed hands a couple of times, and the hotel casino finally opened on Dec. 13, 2023.
Huge project cancelled
Next comes former NBA and University of Las Vegas basketball player Jackie Robinson, no relation to the Hall of Fame baseball player, who in December 2013 proposed the All Net Arena on the North Strip between the Fontainebleau and the Sahara. This huge project was supposed to include a non-gaming hotel with two luxury towers, a 22,000-seat basketball arena with retractable roof, a convention center, movie theater and grocery store.
The project broke ground, but no work happened on the site and Clark County repeatedly extended permits for the project. All Net Arena's developers claimed to have landed $5 billion in funding but could not offer any proof of where that money was coming from.
After almost 10 years of waiting for the project to get underway, enough was enough for Clark County. In November 2023, the Clark County Commissioners voted 7-0 to revoke the project's permits and terminate the project.
"Time and time again, we’ve asked, ‘Just one more year, or two years, let’s get this done, we’ll get it done,’” Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom reportedly said. “We’ve followed the money everywhere around the world. And truthfully, it just hasn’t happened. So, I’m just prepared to make a motion to deny it at this point. It breaks my heart to do it.”
And now, history might repeat itself.
Image source: Wynn Resorts.
County recommends extension denial
Wynn Resorts' (WYNN) -) plan to build a 1,110-room hotel tower on 38 acres of vacant land across from its Wynn and Encore hotel casinos is at risk of collapsing, as the Clark County Building Department staff is recommending denial of an extension request from the hotel casino operator.
Wynn has requested a five-year extension from the county on its previously approved plans for a 3.4 million square-foot project, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The county zoning commission is expected to consider the project at an April meeting.
The company has said that an extension will give it "the appropriate amount of time to consider the best development for the parcel," the Review-Journal reported.
Wynn purchased the vacant property in 2017 for $336 million after development plans had already been approved in 2015, but it never indicated a specific timeline for a development.
County building department staff reportedly recommended denial of the extension because the original plan approval is eight years old and no building permits or project studies have been submitted for review. Some building regulations also have changed since the original plans were approved.
Wynn however in 2022 applied for a building height study from the Federal Aviation Administration that revealed a 640-foot tower could be built on the site. Wynn told the county that it needed an extension since the Covid-19 pandemic delayed several of its projects that it wants to address before building on the Strip property.
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