Plans solidify for two off-Strip resorts

John Wilen and Gary Thompson

Wednesday, Aug. 26, 1998 | 11:09 a.m.

Plans are solidifying for two new off-Strip hotel-casino resorts that would add 3,500 guest rooms to the already-crowded Las Vegas market.

Harvey's Casino Resorts has received Clark County Planning Commission approval for a 2,500-room resort on the northeast corner of Harmon Road and Koval Lane.

According to plans filed with the commission, the resort would include a 33-story, 400-foot hotel tower facing Koval, a 100,000-square-foot casino and a 2,500-seat showroom. Other amenities would include retail shops, restaurants, a sports book, a 4,450-space parking garage and a pool. Harvey's is also considering a number of pool-side "villa" guest rooms.

The site is currently occupied by the Drink nightclub and 96 apartments. According to Harvey's plans, the apartments would be razed and Drink would be moved several hundred feet east on Koval.

Harvey's did not immediately return calls for comment on the status of financing and the timing of the project.

The company has talked about building a resort at the corner of Koval and Harmon for some time. The planning commission filings mark the first time Harvey's has publicly disclosed its specific plans for the site.

Harvey's last year sold its interest in the Hard Rock Hotel at Harmon and Paradise Road. The Lake Tahoe company also owns casino resorts in Lake Tahoe, Central City, Colo., and Council Bluffs, Iowa. This year it merged with Colony Capital Inc. of Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, longtime Las Vegas real estate owner and developer Richard Tam said he and Playboy Enterprises Inc. CEO Christie Hefner are reviewing proposals for a 700-room hotel-casino, 300 time-share units and other facilities on an 11.54-acre site at the northwest corner of Harmon Road and Koval Lane.

Details on the potential resort's theme have not been disclosed.

Tam, a major shareholder in Nevstar Gaming & Entertainment Corp.'s Mesquite Star hotel-casino, was an early investor in what has become prime Southern Nevada real estate.

Among other purchases, he bought 170 acres in the Harmon-Koval area 44 years ago, is a partner in the Desert Mesa shopping center planned for 115 acres at Craig Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard and is the landlord for the Palace Station hotel-casino.