Wendy’s, Marriott operator eyes LV casino

David Strow

Thursday, June 22, 2000 | 11:04 a.m.

A New Jersey restaurant and hotel operator is eyeing a vacant off-Strip parcel for its first Las Vegas hotel-casino.

The Briad Group of Florham Park, N.J., has agreed to acquire a 5.8-acre parcel at the northeast corner of Paradise Road and Harmon Avenue from Mitsubishi Motor Sales America. The parcel is the former home of a rental car outlet.

Once its acquisition closes, Briad intends to build an eight-story, 317-room hotel at the site. The property would feature a 55,000-square-foot casino, 31,000 square feet of convention space, as well as restaurants and lounges, according to plans filed with the Clark County Commission.

Plans indicate the construction cost would be less than $100 million.

"Right now, we're not exactly sure what the final theme would be, but it would be a hotel-casino-restaurant development," said James Arnizzone, Briad's project manager. "We're still ironing things out."

In addition to Paradise and Harmon, the parcel has access to Swenson Street on the east.

Briad's primary business is restaurants; the company operates 38 Wendy's and 16 TGI Friday's restaurants, primarily in the New York and Philadelphia metro areas.

Briad's hotel business is more limited, with three properties in Connecticut and Massachusetts. All of the company's hotels operate under the Marriott name -- a hotel chain that has examined building near the Las Vegas Strip previously, but has shied away from direct involvement in gaming operations.

In order to proceed, the parcel would need to be rezoned from general commercial use to limited resort use. The Clark County Planning Commission approved this application earlier this month; the full Clark County Commission will be asked to give the project its final approval in early July.

"This is not a speculative matter ... they are ready to proceed," said Greg Borgel, a Las Vegas-based planning consultant for Briad. "At this site, across the street from the Hard Rock (hotel-casino), we can't see why (a zoning change) would be an issue."

A local hotel-casino broker said he believes the site would be a good one for development.

"I personally think Hard Rock has proven the off-Strip location can work," said David Atwell, president of Resort Properties of America. "A project properly done on this site should work well. One of the added benefits to this location is the airport traffic filtering onto Harmon going toward the Strip."

Assuming the project is approved, construction should begin later this year, with completion in 2001, Borgel said.