LAS VEGAS– A developer's push to open a Las Vegas Strip resort with an atmosphere reminiscent of Miami Beach's venerable Fontainebleau becomes reality Wednesday with the opening of a 67-story hotel-casino tower made famous for remained unfinished for more than ten years.
“Bringing Fontainebleau Las Vegas to life has been an extraordinary journey,” says Jeffrey Soffer, who started the project, lost it, then regained it to finish it. “Opening a resort of this size and scope is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
The Fontainebleau is the tallest, newest and bluest hotel in southern Nevada's glittering resort corridor. At $3.7 billion, it is second in cost to the $4.3 billion, 66-story Resorts World that opened in June 2021 a short walk from Las Vegas Boulevard.
The name of the 3,644-room Fontainebleau recalls the Miami Beach icon among vacation resorts, which the Soffer family acquired in 2005. But the Mojave Desert project has its own story of starts, stops and changes of ownership since work began in 2007.
Soffer, the Miami-based chairman of Fontainebleau Development, lost financing during the Great Recession and left the project in 2009 when the building was about 70% complete.
Several new owners stepped in, including famed financier Carl Icahn and New York developer Steven Witkoff. The latter announced plans to redesign and rename The Drew resort in 2018, but progress stalled again during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, while stationary, the colossal shell of a building with an incomplete facade facing the street was occasionally used by area firefighters for high-rise rescue training. Last July, as work progressed towards opening, a smoky fire on the roof raised alarms but caused little damage.
Soffer and Fontainebleau Development reacquired the project in 2021 and partnered with Koch Real Estate Investments to finance and complete it.
He called completion “the fulfillment of a long-held dream and a testament to the spirit of our brand, which has existed for seventy years.”
The resort, which awaits guests and gamblers just before midnight Wednesday, features a bow tie theme that pays tribute to the standard ties of Morris Lapidus, architect of the Miami resort that opened in 1954.
“Art, architecture and design are key components of our Fontainebleau culture and guest experience,” said Brett Mufson, president of Fontainebleau Development, in a statement ahead of the opening.
Mark Tricano, president of Fontainebleau Las Vegas, told gambling regulators last month that the resort will employ more than 7,000 workers. The property features 1,300 slot machines, 128 gambling tables and more than 36 bars and restaurants, some featuring chefs with Miami roots. Officials said hotel room rates started around $300 per night before opening.
The structure is the tallest habitable building in Nevada and the second tallest in Las Vegas, behind the nearby Strat Tower observation deck at 350 meters (1,149 feet).
The Fontainebleau was built on the site of the El Rancho hotel, which dated to 1948 and imploded in 2000 after Soffer and condominium developer Turnberry Associates purchased it. Plans to build a British-themed hotel-casino hotel with replicas of the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace were shelved after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Fontainebleau is adjacent to the newest portion of the Las Vegas Convention Center, a $1 billion sprawling space that opened in January 2021, and has views across the Strip to the brightly lit Sphere concert and entertainment venue that opened in September.