Perini building two Las Vegas-area hotel-casinos

Friday, Sept. 29, 2000 | 11:35 a.m.

Perini Building Co. said it signed a $138 million contract Thursday to build the $280 million Resort at Green Valley with Station Casinos Inc. and real estate developer American Nevada Corp.

The project is at Green Valley Parkway and the I-215 beltway in the Green Valley area of Henderson. American Nevada, developer of the Green Valley master-planned community, is controlled by the Greenspun family, owners of the Las Vegas Sun.

Perini said it's also building the Maloof family's $260 million resort-casino on West Flamingo Road near the Rio hotel-casino. Station Casinos and the Greenspun family are minority investors in that project, which Perini said will have a first-stage completion date of December 2001.

As for the Green Valley hotel-casino, which has not yet been named, Perini said it committed to a delivery date of Oct. 1, 2001 -- 17 months from breaking ground. The casino opening date has not been determined, but is planned for sometime in the fourth quarter of 2001.

Perini actually broke ground in June, roughly two weeks after being selected as the general contractor on the project.

"Typically a contractor is brought on board months, even years, prior to construction. On this project, we are literally a page behind the architects as they are developing the drawings," said Joe Haley, project manager for Perini Building Co.

The Santa Barbara-themed resort in Green Valley is being designed by the Friedmutter Group, an architectural firm specializing in resorts and gaming with offices in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, Perini said.

The hotel-casino is on 40 acres and will have 200 hotel rooms, a 9,200-square-feet spa with a pool and grill, movie theaters, full-service restaurants, food court quick-serve outlets, more than 2,000 slot machines, 40 table games, a race and sports book, a poker room, and parking for 3,200 vehicles -- both low-rise garage and surface parking

Elaborate landscaping with grottoes and special event areas will surround the resort, Perini said.

Due to all of the construction tasks simultaneously taking place, Perini has been able to fast-track the project, the builder said.

The Green Valley project will join a large collection of hotel-casinos in which Station owns or has invested in. It has Boulder, Sunset, Palace and Texas Stations and is buying the Fiesta and Santa Fe hotel-casinos in North Las Vegas and northwestern Las Vegas. A separate North Las Vegas casino on Craig Road has also been proposed by Station. Station and the Greenspuns have been long-time partners in the Barley's locals' casino and brewery in Green Valley. Station has said it will contribute $40 million in cash to the project, while American Nevada was to contribute an equal amount of cash and land with the balance financed by debt. Perini, a unit of Massachusetts-based Perini Corp., says it's the largest builder of hotels and casinos in the country.