Lots Happening On The North End Of The Vegas Strip

Posted on Categories Hotels

There was a good amount of news on the north end of the Vegas Strip this week. You’ll see some of the news in the next year or so but not all of will be noticeable by the naked eye in the near future. The north end of the Las Vegas Strip has been considered no-man’s land for a while. The area really became no-man’s land when Riviera was purchased and closed earlier this year. Even before the Sahara closed in 2011 there were a large group of people that would never venture north or Wynn or the Fashion Show Mall when visiting Las Vegas.

That could be changing. When the Riviera closed it was just a day before a new project was breaking ground across the street. Here’s all the news from the past few months on the north end of the Vegas Strip.

Resorts World

Genting Group broke ground for Resorts World Las Vegas across the street from Riviera on May 5, the day after the Riviera closed. The new huge casino-resort project is being built on the land that was home to the Stardust and failed Echelon project. There hasn’t been much movement on the construction site lately and it from the naked eye it looks as though their mid-2018 opening might be in jeopardy. Hopefully that’s not the case.

Alon

Alon will be built next door to the land where Resorts World should someday rise. Construction isn’t set to begin until next year but this week construction crews started to prepare the land to have work done. Alon will be a luxury resort directly across the street from Wynn and next door to the Fashion Show Mall on the land once occupied by the New Frontier. It’s nice to see some movement on a construction site. Alon is also scheduled to open in 2018.

Lucky Dragon

Lucky Dragon is currently being built at a furious paced a little north and steps off the Vegas Strip on Sahara Avenue. Lucky Dragon is scheduled to open in the summer of 2016 and is located walking distance from SLS Las Vegas and the Stratosphere. The Asian-inspired boutique hotel will have just over 200 rooms and the small casino will have about 50 table games and 500 slot machines. This project seemed like a dream until the pace of construction exploded over the summer. It looks as though Lucky Dragon is on pace for their planned opening.

Fontainebleau

The bones of this building may be more famous than any other casino project on the north end of the Vegas Strip. The big blue 86 story eyesore might be the non-attraction that gets the most questions on the Vegas Strip. The property has been dormant since halting construction in 2008. Well, it shouldn’t be much of an eyesore for much longer. This week the owner, Carl Icahn, was told that he has to hide the building. Icahn has 6 months to cover Fontainebleau with a giant building wrap. The good news is thatFontainebleau won’t be as ugly. The bad news is that the building will probably remain standing with no activity until the other projects in the area are near completion.

(Update 11/11 – Carl Icahn is now looking to sell Fontainebleau.)

SLS Las Vegas

The hotel built on the bones of the Sahara opened last year to mediocre fanfare. There were some great, and well deserved, reviews on the hotel rooms and some of the restaurants but the property hasn’t really connected with visitors yet. This week sbe was given permission to sell their 10% stake in the casino hotel. SLS also announced that they would no longer be a part of Hilton’s Curio collection. The hotel is trying to reinvent itself on the fly and there have already been noticeable changes in their marketing, restaurant and retail offerings. There’s also a rumor that a theater will be built in the area of the casino once occupied by a nightclub. Onward and upward for SLS!

Wynn and Encore

This week Wynn Resorts announced that Tryst Nightclub inside the Encore tower will be replaced with a 5 star/5 diamond club called Intrigue. There have been a lot of changes at Wynn and Encore this year including hotel room renovations, restaurants, attractions and the aforementioned nightclub. There will also be a shuffling of casinos with the poker room moving from Wynn to Encore. The Ferrari dealership located at Wynn has been closed and rumors are that it and the poker room space are earmarked for new retail space but there’s nothing official on that. One thing is clear, Wynn won’t be the same casino resort you remember from 3 years ago.