New Lake Las Vegas complex announced

David Strow

Wednesday, June 21, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

The developers of Lake Las Vegas today unveiled plans to build a $500 million Mediterranean-themed hotel-casino, commercial and residential complex at the Henderson resort community. It will be anchored by famed luxury hotel operator Ritz-Carlton.

Called "The Village at MonteLago," the 50-acre resort will include a 350-room Ritz-Carlton, a 40,000-square-foot casino, 900 luxury condominiums, 125,000 square feet of retail space and 50,000 square feet of office space.

The resort will be located about a quarter-mile from the $150 million Hyatt Regency hotel-casino, opened late last year. Construction should begin by year's end, with completion in 2002.

"The Hyatt was a wonderful move ... the Ritz brings us another level of sophistication," said Ron Boeddeker, chairman of Transcontinental Corp., developer of the Lake Las Vegas project. "It shows the commitment the hotel industry is making to this (project).

"We've designed this for between four to six hotels. We're working on No. 3 right now."

Transcontinental is owned by Texas billionaires Sid and Lee Bass.

For Ritz-Carlton, the effort represents the Atlanta hotelier's third effort to enter the Las Vegas market. The company pulled out of plans to build a Ritz-Carlton at the Mountain Spa Resort Development in northwest Las Vegas in April, but vowed to continue its hunt for a suitable Las Vegas location.

"Our guests have been indicating to us for some time that they would like to have a Ritz-Carlton option in the Las Vegas area," said Shelby Taylor, spokeswoman for Ritz-Carlton. "This enables us to bring not only a hotel, but to create a real Ritz-Carlton destination away from the Strip.

"We are definitely departing ... from the traditional Ritz-Carlton hotel. We look at what works best for each destination. This is very unusual for us."

Unique for Ritz-Carlton is a residential component -- the luxury operator will manage 80 condominiums that will be offered to the public. Ritz-Carlton is also developing projects with residential components in New York, Washington, Boston and Florida.

"That's a new business we're going into," Taylor said. "The owners of these condos will have all the benefits and services of Ritz-Carlton at their disposal."

Only one Ritz-Carlton resort -- in San Juan, Puerto Rico -- has gaming. That too is a departure for Ritz-Carlton, whose previous Las Vegas plans did not include a gaming component.

"We will not manage the casino, but definitely being in a Las Vegas destination, that's something the guests will be looking for as well," Taylor said.

Transcontinental is in talks with "several major companies" to manage the casino component, Boeddeker said.

But a second key element of the development will be the residential, retail and commercial component. That will be largely developed by Intrawest Corp. of Vancouver, a developer of village-style residential and retail developments at 10 ski destinations across North America.

"The attraction is obviously the huge number of annual visitors, the large amount of disposable income and the ability to partner with Lake Las Vegas and the Ritz," said Jim Onken, regional vice president with Intrawest. "This is certainly an opportunity where our (development) skills match up extremely well.

"Five years ago, we might have shaken our head at this (the Lake Las Vegas concept), but we think they've reached critical mass. There's something real there, something special."

What Intrawest envisions is a seamless integration of retail and residential components, modeled after what's seen in many European cities. Buildings will have retail shops on ground levels and luxury condominiums on upper levels.

"It's an integration of all the elements, and the people that live in our villages love it," Onken said. "These buildings are constructed with the human element and people in mind. Everything is within comfortable walking distance."

The elaborate village will also include beaches, lake side walkways, harborside boat docks and water taxis.

Intrawest will primarily look for "upscale boutique" retailers and restaurants to fill the 125,000 square feet of retail space.

"We're certainly not appealing at all ... to a typical T-shirt kind of (retailer)," Onken said. "Our emphasis will be on specialness and uniqueness."

The office space was included, Onken said, because of heavy demand among wealthy business people who live part of the year in Las Vegas.

"There's a number of very well-heeled people currently calling Lake Las Vegas home," Onken said. "They said, 'We'd love to come out here, conduct some of our business here, if we had an office setting.' When you hear it 10 times, you say, 'Why not build it?'

"There was intense demand from people who are semi-local, who want to operate their businesses at least part-time out of Las Vegas."

With today's announced development, Boeddeker said Lake Las Vegas is becoming a "true destination resort," something he says does not exist in Las Vegas currently. The Strip's massive properties, he maintains, "aren't truly destination resorts."

"That's not where people want to live," Boeddeker said. "In order to have a destination resort, you need residential development, hotels, office buildings, retail. That's all built into our plan."

Once complete, Boeddeker said, Lake Las Vegas will rival the kind of resorts seen in such places as Scottsdale, Ariz., Palm Springs, Calif., and Hawaii.

"People can live here, work here and play here," Boeddeker said. "The shocking part is there's no destination resort currently existing in the whole state of Nevada. They will be here."