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After facing concerns about potential illegal drone flights, laser lights, gunfire attacks, and even bombs hidden in garbage trucks, the developers broke a big hurdle this week in their quest to build a resort. next to Las Vegas airport.
The Clark County Commission on Wednesday voted 6 to 1 to approve plans for the Dream Las Vegas, a 20-story hotel and casino to be built next to the Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership near the south edge of the Strip. His approximately 5 acre lot on Las Vegas Boulevard is currently separated from McCarran International Airport by a chain link fence.
Commissioner Ross Miller – who at the hearing said the “first threshold question” is whether county leaders should “allow casino hotels directly above our airport” – voted the only “no “.
Dream developers David Daneshforooz and Bill Shopoff hope to lead the way in late Q2 or early Q3 2022 and open around two years later.
It is expected to cost around $ 500 million, Daneshforooz said.
The 527-room project would be much smaller than other resorts on Las Vegas Boulevard, providing a boutique-style experience in an ultra-competitive market dominated by huge resorts with often thousands of rooms each.
Shopoff believes his group will “find our customers” among visitors who don’t want to stay in a sprawling casino hotel.
He also said the developers would likely spend more than $ 10 million on physical changes to the project that stem directly from the concerns and opposition they faced.
“Flash blindness”
Shopoff, founder of Shopoff Realty Investments, and Daneshforooz, managing director of real estate firm Contour, announced project plans in February 2020, a month before the coronavirus pandemic devastated Las Vegas’ economy and transformed the Strip into a surreal site of closed casinos and calm. sidewalks.
Dream, however, faced a series of obstacles due to its location.
As noted in county documents, the proposal raised “safety and security concerns” regarding McCarran’s operations, and project plans were sent to agencies such as the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the United States. secret Service.
The Transportation Security Administration released an assessment indicating that the project is near an area of the airport “used for high-level personnel, special operations and the parking of military aircraft,” and that the complex ” would increase the risk to the aircraft and passengers due to active activities “. shooters and the ability to throw objects over the fence intended to cause damage “to people and planes, according to county documents.
TSA also said the hotel’s proposed service route would make its border with the airport “more susceptible to improvised explosive device attacks from vehicles delivered by vendors or garbage trucks,” and that areas openings planned for the third and ninth floors “provide a direct line of sight for laser flashes and long gun attacks” against planes and the airport, according to county documents.
Additionally, major airlines such as Southwest, Delta, American and United have all raised concerns about the project, citing issues such as illegal drone activity, lasers, lighting, and traffic signs. display that “could potentially be a source of flash blindness”.
Design change
Project representative Tony Celeste from law firm Kaempfer Crowell described several design changes to the commission on Wednesday.
Dream’s porte-cochere has been relocated, allowing developers to move the tower away from the airport property line and toward Las Vegas Boulevard, and its border with McCarran will feature a “nine-foot-high double-reinforced security wall. “with railings and iron fences,” he said.
A security checkpoint will only allow authorized vehicles onto the service road that surrounds the property, and gates or spikes will be installed on the other side of the building to prevent drivers from avoiding this controlled entrance, according to Celestial.
More importantly, he told commissioners, McCarran’s lines of sight have been “drastically reduced.”
The parking lot will be fenced; the hotel’s now unique pool deck will have a 10-foot “decorative” safety wall; all the balconies of the rooms have been demolished; and every room will have a “glass break detection system” that will alert security if someone tampers with the windows, Celeste said.
The gunman who attacked the Route 91 Harvest festival on October 1, 2017, killing 60 people and injuring hundreds more, smashed windows on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay to target the South Strip outdoor concert grounds . He also fired several shots at the fuel tanks at the airport.
“Vacant space”
Rosemary Vassiliadis, county aviation director, told commissioners on Wednesday officials “appreciate the developers’ commitment” to a series of preconditions, which she said “should mitigate the severity of the safety concerns and security “but not eliminate them.
“Pilots love open and vacant spaces,” she said, “so with that, they won’t be supporting a project like this.”
Vassiliadis also said the Federal Aviation Administration found “no obstruction impact” on airport operations because of Dream’s proposed height, currently 234 feet.
Commissioner Jim Gibson, whose district includes the project site, alluded to the county’s sale of the plot in the late 1990s and noted that it came with a deed restriction that allowed for the creation. of a resort hotel.
Gibson also highlighted Vassiliadis’ comments on mitigating – not eliminating – security concerns.
“It’s impossible, it’s really impossible on almost any project to say that… never could, could never happen,” he said.
Contact Eli Segall at [email protected] or 702-383-0342. To follow @eli_segall on Twitter.
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