Fountainebleu to reopen on The Strip in less than 2 months

After years of trouble, the Fountainebleu is one step away from the grand opening on December 13, after twenty-plus years of trouble, and is the first new casino to emerge on the Las Vegas Strip since 2021 and only the second one since 2010.

The Nevada Gaming Commission will consider final approval on November 16 after the unanimous recommendation of approval from the Nevada Gaming Control Board. If the Nevada Gaming Commission concurs at the November 16 meeting, Fountainebleu and its top executives would be licensed to operate after Wednesday’s vote.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board members spent about 40 minutes questioning Jeffrey Soffer, Brett Mufson and other executives, and found no major issues with the application. The board recommended approval in a preliminary suitability hearing for executives.

“We are certainly happy to see that this 20-plus-year project is coming to frutition”, Control Board Chairman Kirk Hendrick told the thrilled applicants. “I’m also happy to see this is fixing and rejuvenating that portion of the Las Vegas Strip that has been dormant for so long, so thank you for that”.

The 67-story hotel with 3,644 rooms and suites is the tallest occupiable structure not only in Las Vegas but in the entire state of Nevada. The Fleur de Lis suites include a separate private hotel entrance, in-suite check-in, a dedicated butler service, nightly turndown service and more.

The $3.7bn structure was first proposed by Fountainebleu Development CEO Jeffrey Soffer in 2005, and construction began two years later. However, the financial crisis of 2008 led to Soffer abandoning the project in 2009. Since then, the building’s ownership changed hands several times, and the building itself became a symbol of the Great Recession on the Strip skyline. Progress actually continued through 2008 even as other Strip projects faltered, but lenders became skittish a year later and the construction eventually was put to a grinding halt in April 2009.

Billionaire corporate raider Carl Icahn purchased the unfinished building for $150m in 2010, holding onto the asset for years and selling off the furniture and fixtures. Evantually, Icash sold the property to real estate investment firms Witkoff and New Valley for $600m in 2017. Witkoff actually planned to open a new resort called The Drew in 2020, but again disaster struck and construction was halted due to covid-19.

Eventually, in 2021, the ownership returned to Soffer’s hands with a partnership with the real estate division of Kansas conglomerate Koch Industries. The Great Recession took the property away from Soffer and another dramatic event, covid-19, returned it to him.

Total gaming space of the Fountainebleu casino is 173,000 sqft. There will be a total of 7,100 employees, 5,000 of them on a full-time pay, and 1,850 have already been hired. Fountainebleu Las Vegas will have 36 restaurants and bars and its casino will actually be the second-largest in Las Vegas behind Wynn and Encore. There will be six private gaming salons for high rollers. The property’s race and sportsbook will will be operated on Station Casinos’ STN-branded platform.

The property owners expect to take advantage of its proximity to the Las Vegas Convention Center, and future corridors between the resort and the Convention Center’s West Hall are planned.

To further emphasize what a big deal the Fountainebleu opening is, there were only several instances of new hotel casinos being opened on The Strip. Change of ownership is common, but new structures rarely emerge from the ground.

MGM Resorts International constructed the City Center complex that includes the Aria Resort and Casino in 2009, and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas casino and hotel in 2010. These were the two major construction activities in recent memory until Genting constructed Resorts World Las Vegas at the site of Stardust in 2021, with a Chinese theme.

Dream Las Vegas, a boutique hotel and casino, is under construction on the southern Las Vegas Strip but the project was delayed after the Transportation Security Administration raised numerous safety concerns related to the proximity of the site with Harry Reid International Airport. Construction was paused in March 2023 due to stalled funding. The opening is now scheduled for some time in 2025.