Bellagio to accent romance

Rex Buntain

Thursday, March 7, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Steve Wynn's most valuable skill has proved to be his ability to stay one giant step ahead of the rest of the gaming industry.

During a presentation indicative of the Wynn flair, the chairman of Mirage Resorts Inc. led reporters Wednesday on a virtual reality tour of Bellagio, a $1.25 billion resort planned for the former site of the Dunes hotel-casino.

Characterizing the project as the "single most captivating hotel on Earth," Wynn finally revealed details of the development patterned and named after a village in Italy.

Bellagio, at Las Vegas Boulevard South and Flamingo Road, will overlook a 12-acre lake. It will feature Italian gardens, marble floors and imported fixtures and fabrics. It will play host to some of the swankiest restaurants and boutiques in the country. And it will be expensive.

Rooms will be in the $350 price range during weekends.

"We're going to charge a lot for this hotel, it will be a whole different price point," Wynn said. "We're trying to build the most romantic, the most elegant hotel in the world."

After two years of studying designs and concepts, construction on Bellagio began in November. The 37-story, 3,000-room hotel-casino is scheduled to be completed in early 1998.

As opposed to former Mirage properties, which have featured a volcano that erupts every 15 minutes and spectacular battles between pirates and English sailors, Wynn painted a more serene picture for Bellagio.

Italian gardens and pools will be visible from virtually every area of the property. The registration desk, in the mode of the 20,000-gallon aquarium at The Mirage, will be shadowed by a living fantasy garden that will change with the seasons and incorporate robotic butterflies, birds, plants and smells.

And then there's the $35 million water show that will spring from the lake. With 1,175 water jet heads, 6,200 light fixtures and speaker clusters like those used at the Fremont Street Experience downtown, choreographed displays of water will dance 160 feet into the air. Wynn said the display will surpass Disney's water and light show in Orlando, Fla.

"The mark of this hotel will be our ability to move water and light," Wynn said. "It's going to be a lovely place to be."

Wynn said when the concept of Bellagio was being discussed, only a handful of cities in the world would suffice. But London, Paris, New York, Hong Kong and Orlando either did not have a big enough piece of land or the cost was prohibitive.

"You couldn't do it in Des Moines or Dallas or anywhere else," he said. "It had to be done in one of the great cities of the world."

Scott Renner, a New York-based gaming analyst for Solomon Brothers, said Bellagio will be the most lavish property developed in Las Vegas. "It's the kind of property that will be able to attract visitors that might otherwise be attracted to other high-end properties around the world."

Nor will entertainment take a back seat at Bellagio. A showroom with a price tag of $75 million, along with a new show to rival Cirque Du Soleil at Treasure Island and Siegfried & Roy at The Mirage, is being developed.

"The show has to match the drama and elegance of the rest of the hotel," Wynn said.

He said businessmen do not have the luxury of being able to operate like politicians.

"(Bellagio) is going to make lofty promises and it damn well better keep them," he said. "Our reputation is good enough where people actually expect us to do this."