Lobster restaurant claws back

Adrienne Packer

Thursday, Oct. 4, 2001 | 10:37 a.m.

After losing a lengthy battle with his megaresort neighbor, the owner of Rosewood Grille fought Wednesday to keep a presence on the Las Vegas Strip with the addition of a nine-story shopping center.

A vote finally swung Rosewood Grille owner Alan LeWinter's way when the Clark County Zoning Board unanimously approved the project.

LeWinter, who owns the restaurant with his brother, Kevin, wants to build a parking garage and a 60,970-square-foot shopping center and relocate the restaurant, famous for lobster, on the top floor.

The board's decision came more than two years after it rejected LeWinter's request to build a 28-story time-share project on the property, which isn't quite an acre.

"We have been frustrated with the process, but we're quite relieved," LeWinter said after the board's 4-0 vote.

LeWinter also received permission to add a leg to his new building from the existing pedestrian bridge linking the Venetian to the Mirage and Treasure Island.

His proposal was only mildly opposed by Venetian representatives, who have fought the 45-year-old restaurant since plans to build the $1.5 billion megaresort were conceived in the late 1990s.

"This may signal a new era of cooperation with all properties," said real estate attorney Chris Kaempfer, who represented the Rosewood Grille.

Though county zoning laws do not allow a building to take up more than 80 percent of a property, the board made an exception for the Rosewood Grille because of its small, unusually shaped parcel.

The new building will take up 87 percent of the property; the only other project on the Strip that exceeds the limit is the Aladdin, which blankets about 85 percent of its lot.

Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey said the shopping center proposal was easily more acceptable than the pitch for a time-share.

"I was not real happy with the first design; this is much better," the commissioner said.

Rosewood owners pitched the time-share concept out of frustration over the commission's 1999 decision to allow the Venetian and Mirage to build a pedestrian bridge mid-block rather than the traditional placement at an intersection.

The bridge obstructs the Rosewood Grille's famous sign, and owners argue that fewer people use the sidewalk near the intersection of the Strip and Spring Mountain Road.

The LeWinters have fought Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Venetian, for more than four years and have lost every battle.

Losses inside the commission chambers and courtrooms have left the Rosewood Grille blocked in on three sides by the Venetian's concrete-block walls.

Venetian representatives consistently claim they're simply going about their business.

Kevin LeWinter offered a different opinion in the wake of the commission's 1999 approval of the pedestrian bridge and its denial of the Rosewood's original plan to expand.

"(The Venetian) says they're building the bridge for public safety, for Mom, for apple pie," Kevin LeWinter said. "But they tell a different story outside this room. They express their intent to divert pedestrians away so they can buy out our property."

The pedestrian bridge, the first ever built mid-block rather than at an intersection, was the latest blow to the Rosewood Grille.

The restaurant's troubles with the Venetian started in 1997, when the hotel was granted permission to move power lines that served the Rosewood Grille. The restaurant was forced to use a generator for a week.

LeWinter said he has no construction date for the new retail center.