Opening date moved up

Friday, Sept. 7, 2001 | 10:42 a.m.

The Palms, the $265 million, 455-room hotel-casino now under construction near the Las Vegas Strip, is now set to open Nov. 15, resort officials said.

The Maloof family, majority owner of the resort, had targeted a mid-December opening date when ground was broken on the Palms last October.

"That date was set to make sure we had enough cushion that we'd be ready when we opened," said Jim Hughes, general manager of the Palms. "Things have gone well, the construction has run a little ahead of schedule ... we decided getting open before Thanksgiving would be pretty advantageous for us. It's obviously one of the biggest weekends of the year, an opportunity for us to get exposure to a lot of out-of-town visitors."

Fireworks will be a component of the opening night events, but details are still being worked out.

The Nov. 15 opening date is subject to the approval of Nevada gaming regulators. The state Gaming Control Board is set to consider the Palms' gaming license application Wednesday; the Nevada Gaming Commission will examine it and give a final decision Sept. 26.

The opening comes during Comdex week, the largest annual Las Vegas convention. But Hughes said the Palms wasn't trying to capture Comdex business.

"It really wasn't a Comdex thing. It was just a matter of when Perini (Building Co.) and we would be ready to go," Hughes said. "With our grand opening, and all the people we're expecting from out-of-town, we won't be booking any Comdex business."

Minority owners in the Palms include Station Casinos Inc. and the Greenspun family of Las Vegas, which also owns the Las Vegas Sun.