New shopping mall signs tenants

Monday, Oct. 25, 1999 | 2:09 a.m.

Desert Passage, a 500,000-square-foot shopping mall scheduled to open with the new Aladdin hotel and casino next summer, is now 80 percent leased, a company spokesman said.

The $250 million shopping mall, located between the Aladdin and Paris hotel-casinos, is expected to compete directly with the Las Vegas Strip's other upscale shopping malls such as the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace.

"Las Vegas is no longer just a gaming town, it's a Rodeo Drive in the middle of the desert," said Paul Beirnes, the mall's director of marketing. "These retailers really feel they need to be here in Las Vegas."

The center is now more than 80 percent leased according to the mall's developer, TrizecHahn Development Corp.

"We reached the 80 percent mark and said let's stop and say, 'What do we want to do with the remaining 20 percent?"' Beirnes said. "The remaining 20 percent will be the grand slam; these are the ones that will make shoppers say, 'Oh you've got that there?"'

Desert Passage is designed to offer points of interest to differentiate it from the many other shopping venues in Las Vegas, according to Beirnes, a former Walt Disney executive.

TrizecHahn describes Desert Passage as an "authentically created romantic adventure which traces the routes of traders and travelers from Gibraltar across the sands of North Africa to the Arabian Sea."

"They've got a good tenant mix," said Richard Goeglein, president and chief executive officer of Aladdin Gaming LLC, which is developing the $1.3 billion casino resort. "I'm particularly pleased with their dining and entertainment offerings."