Resort at Summerlin to open June 29

Tuesday, March 16, 1999 | 11:50 a.m.

The Resort at Summerlin, a $270 million development featuring two Regent International Hotels and a European-style casino, is scheduled to open June 29.

The new opening date was confirmed Monday by Brian McMullan, president of Seven Circle Resorts, builder and operator of the project at Summerlin Parkway and Rampart Boulevard.

Originally, the developers had hoped to open the upscale golf-and-gaming destination resort in mid-April. But a desire to "get it right and open everything in it at the same time" resulted in the rescheduled opening date, McMullan said.

The Resort at Summerlin will include 540 rooms and suites split between two hotels -- the 253-room Regent Grand Palms and the 287-room Regent Grand Spa.

The 54-acre site in Summerlin also has a $13.5 million complex of pools and gardens and will control 50 percent of the tee times at the TPC at the Canyons golf course for the use of its guests.

The hotels will carry the Regent International brand, marking their affiliation with the Carlson Companies Inc. unit that boasts some of the world's most famous luxury hotels. The Regent Hong Kong, for example, is consistently ranked among the top five hotels in the world by Conde Naste and other travel authorities.

A family owned, $20 billion travel and hospitality conglomerate, Carlson has more than 5,300 travel agency locations in 140 countries, as well as 1,000 hotel, resort, restaurant and cruise ship operations.

The builder, Seven Circle Resorts, contributed $67.5 million of equity and issued $100 million of first-mortgage notes and $100 million of senior subordinated debt to finance the Resort at Summerlin.

In addition to tourists, the resort's 50,000-square-foot casino will serve local residents from the affluent Summerlin area, which McMullan has said "is extremely important to us."

"More than 235,000 people live within 5 miles," he said. "And they have an average income 22 percent higher than the rest of Las Vegas and 30 percent higher than the rest of the country."

Seven Circle is a wholly owned subsidiary of Swiss Casinos of America Inc., itself a majority owned subsidiary of Swiss Casinos Holding AG.

Swiss Casinos Holding operates gaming facilities in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Great Britain and the United States.