Resort at Summerlin’s opening set for Monday

Friday, July 9, 1999 | 11:23 a.m.

Executives at the soon-to-open Resort at Summerlin saw the silver lining in the clouds, even after they dumped about 3 inches of rain on a press preview Thursday.

"This is a great opportunity for us to see if there are any leaks," said Sales and Marketing Director Allison Kneubuhl. "If the roofs can take this, we can take about anything."

The roofs didn't leak.

And the rain failed to dampen the enthusiasm of Brian McMullan, president of Seven Circle Resorts, and his staff.

"I thought they only had a monsoon in Bombay," McMullan told a small gathering of journalists who made it to the $270 million resort before the rain's runoff began closing roads and snarling traffic.

Seven Circle is the builder and operator of the golf and spa resort, which plans a soft opening Monday. Included in the opening will be one of the two six-story Regent International Hotels, the 286-room Regent Grand Spa; the hotel's Ceres restaurant and the 50,000-square-foot casino.

The Upstairs Market, a 600-seat upscale buffet with panoramic views and some outdoor seating, also will be part of the soft opening.

The rest of the resort will open incrementally through the summer, culminating with a fund-raising gala and celebrity golf tournament at the end of October.

Opening later in the summer will be the 255-room Regent Grand Palms hotel -- a mirror image of the Regent Grand Spa with some larger suites. Rooms offer views of Red Rock Canyon to the west and the lights of Las Vegas to the east.

Nevada Nick's, a steakhouse, is due to open in late July. August openings are planned for the resort's other restaurants, Hamada of Japan; Chez Napoleon, a French coffeehouse; Cafe de Paris; the Spiedini Italian restaurant; and J.C. Wooloughan Irish Pub.

Other light retail shops are scheduled to open throughout August. In September, Aquae Sulis, the resort's 40,000-square-foot luxury health spa, will debut.

Although the resort will be incomplete through much of the summer, the company intends to make a stay worthwhile with introductory rates through August. Room reservations will go from $195 to $365 a night, down from the September-to-May rates of $345 to $525. Suites range from $500 to $8,000 a night.

McMullan said the company's objective is to draw guests with the spa and the golf. Aquae Sulis -- Latin for "waters of the sun" -- will have 36 treatment rooms for massages, facials and a number of therapies.

The resort will have golf privileges on the Tournament Players Club at the Canyons, Angel Park, Badlands and the Painted Desert golf clubs as well as the Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort. The resort will control half the tee times at the TPC course, home of the Las Vegas Senior Class, and has the option of expanding to 75 percent of the times.

McMullan said the resort also will play host to business clientele with a 50,000-square-foot conference and banquet center with 21,000 square feet of meeting space.

A 2,600-vehicle parking garage has 1,000 covered spaces.

The rooms have three telephones, some with data ports, and the 30-inch televisions are equipped with wireless keyboards for Internet access.

The company has paid attention to detail in making the rooms as luxurious as possible. The smallest of the 541 rooms have 560 square feet and each room has a two-person Jacuzzi tub, an individual shower, marble fixtures, a ceiling fan and one king or two queen-sized beds.

"The best measure of the comfort of a room is to make it an achievement for guests to get out of bed in the morning," McMullan said. "We want these rooms to be more comfortable than anywhere they've been."

Among the high-tech features of the rooms are motion-detection sensors the maid staff will use to determine if a guest is in the room to minimize untimely knocks at the door. Also, in most rooms, windows open or doors offer balcony access and the air conditioning automatically shuts off when doors or windows open.

McMullan said the off-Strip location is expected to help the resort because many visitors don't want to be in the center of activity. It also should keep most visitors on or near the property.

"At the Strip hotels, guests have the option of going next door." McMullan said. "That's something that won't happen here."

But if guests do have a hankering to the Strip, the resort will provide a complimentary shuttle between the property and the Fashion Show mall.

And, there's also the circular casino, which will contain 40 table games, 1,200 slot machines and a race and sports book.

The resort also will offer an 11-acre garden area adorned with 3,500 trees and 17 waterfalls. An 11,000-square-foot swimming pool has swimming lanes and two 250-square-foot spa pools with lifts for the disabled.