After developers had concerns about potentially illegal drone flying, laser light, gunshot attacks, and even bombs hidden in garbage trucks, developers cleared a major hurdle this week to build a resort next to the Las Vegas airport.
The Clark County Commission voted 6-1 on Wednesday to approve plans for Dream Las Vegas, a 20-story hotel-casino that would be built next to the Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealer near the south edge of the Strip. His 5-acre property on Las Vegas Boulevard is currently separated from McCarran International Airport by chain link fences.
Commissioner Ross Miller – who said during the hearing that the “first threshold question” was whether district leaders should “allow casino hotels directly at our airport” – had the only “no” vote.
Dream developers David Daneshforooz and Bill Shopoff hope to be able to lay the foundation stone by the end of the second quarter or the beginning of the third quarter of 2022 and to open about two years later.
It’s said to cost around $ 500 million, Daneshforooz said.
The 527-room project would be much smaller than other resorts on Las Vegas Boulevard and offer a boutique experience in an extremely competitive market dominated by huge resorts that often have thousands of rooms.
Shopoff assumes that his group will “find our following” among visitors who do not want to stay in a sprawling hotel-casino.
He also said the developers are likely to spend more than $ 10 million on physical changes to the project that are directly attributable to the concerns and opposition they have faced.
“Lightning blindness”
Shopoff, founder of Shopoff Realty Investments, and Daneshforooz, CEO of real estate company Contour, announced project plans in February 2020, a month before the coronavirus pandemic devastated the Las Vegas economy and turned the Strip into a surreal place of closed casinos and quiet sidewalks.
However, Dream faced a number of obstacles due to its location.
As described in the county documents, the proposal raised “security concerns” about McCarran’s operations, and project plans were sent to agencies such as the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service.
The Transportation Security Administration issued an assessment that the project is near an area of the airport that is “used for high-level individuals, special operations, and military aircraft parking” and the resort is “the risk to both the aircraft and the aircraft.” increase the number of passengers due to active activities ”. Protect and the ability to throw things over the fence that are supposed to cause harm to people and planes, ”circular documents show.
The TSA also said the hotel’s proposed residential street would make its border with the airport “more susceptible to improvised explosive device attack by vehicles delivered by vendors or garbage trucks,” and that the open areas planned for the third and ninth floors would be “one offer direct connection ”. Visibility for laser flashes and long weapon attacks “against aircraft and the airport, it says in the district documents.
In addition, major airlines such as Southwest, Delta, American and United raised concerns about the project, citing issues such as illegal drone activity, lasers, lighting and billboards that “could potentially be a source of lightning blindness.”
Design changes
Project representative Tony Celeste of the law firm Kaempfer Crowell described several design changes to the commission on Wednesday.
Dream’s Porte-Cochere was relocated so developers could relocate the tower away from the airport’s property line and towards Las Vegas Boulevard, and on the McCarran border will be a “nine-meter-high, double-reinforced security wall” with guardrails and wrought iron -Iron fence, he said.
A security checkpoint will only allow authorized vehicles to use the access road that surrounds the property, and bars or spikes will be installed on the other side of the building to prevent drivers from avoiding this controlled entrance, according to Celeste.
More importantly, he told commissioners, the lines of sight to McCarran were “dramatically reduced”.
The parking garage is fenced off; the now lonely pool deck of the hotel will have a “decorative” 3-foot security wall; all guest room balconies were scrapped; and every room will have a “broken glass detection system” that will alert security if someone tampered with the windows, Celeste said.
The gunman, who attacked Route 91 Harvest Festival on October 1, 2017, killing 60 people and injuring hundreds more, broke through windows on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay to target the open-air concert area on the South Strip. He also fired several rounds at fuel tanks at the airport.
‘Free space’
Rosemary Vassiliadis, the county’s aviation director, told commissioners on Wednesday that officials appreciate the developers’ “obligation” to meet a number of preconditions that they believe should “mitigate the severity of safety concerns”, but not eliminate them.
“Pilots like open, empty spaces,” she said, “they won’t support a project like this.”
Vassiliadis also said the Federal Aviation Administration has not identified any “obstacle effects” on airport operations due to Dream’s proposed elevation of currently 234 feet.
Commissioner Jim Gibson, whose county the project site belongs to, hinted at the county’s sale of the property in the late 1990s, noting that it came with a deed restriction allowing a resort hotel.
Gibson also referred to Vassiliadis’ remarks aimed at mitigating – not eliminating – safety concerns.
“It’s impossible, it really is impossible to say this on almost any project … will never happen, never can happen,” he said.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.
