Music-themed megaresort planned

Bob Shemeligian

Tuesday, May 20, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

The company that developed Virgin Megastore Times Square in New York City plans to develop a $450 million music-themed hotel-entertainment center on the Las Vegas Strip within two years.

"This city is supposed to be the world's entertainment capital, but every time I come here, I find the entertainment to be lacking and I end up at the Forum Shops," Ian Duffell, president and CEO of Virgin Entertainment Group, said Monday.

Duffell is in Las Vegas this week to attend the International Council of Shopping Centers Convention at the Las Vegas Hilton and the Las Vegas Convention Center.

"There simply aren't enough places to be entertained in Las Vegas," Duffell said. "And we plan to be the first to offer entertainment in its purest form in America."

The 14-acre project will include a 1,500-room hotel-casino and a 500,000-square-foot entertainment center housing a sports-themed restaurant, multiplex theater, super bookstore, music store and a brew pub.

"It will be a wonderful place to hang out," said Duffell, who has overseen the opening of eight megastores in North America, including the one at Times Square, the largest music-entertainment store in the world.

Music will play a big part in the entertainment center, said Duffell, who began his professional career in 1972 with Sony Corp., and who launched the Sony Walkman, the compact disc player and other music-related consumer products.

Duffell was among four developers who participated in a panel discussion Monday morning on the future of entertainment in shopping centers.

The other panelists were James Ratner of Forest City Enterprises, a partner in the Galleria at Sunset and the World of Coca-Cola Las Vegas, and Lee Wagman and David Malmuth of TrizecHahn Centers, developer of the Fashion Show Mall.

Not to be outdone by Virgin Entertainment, Malmuth said TrizecHahn will co-develop and manage a 450,000-square-foot themed entertainment shopping complex, which will part of a $1 billion expansion and renovation project at the Aladdin hotel-casino.

The shopping complex, to be called Desert Passage at the Aladdin, will feature high-end specialty stores, boutiques and themed restaurants, and will complement the overall theme of the hotel with references to ancient tales such as "Scherezade and her Thousand and One Nights," Malmuth said.

"This complex will be a sensational addition to the Strip," Malmuth said. "We are reinventing the concept of an entertainment shopping complex. There will be cinematic desert themes throughout the property."