Developer wins OK for resort

Thursday, April 4, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

The developer of an art deco-themed hotel and time-share proposal won approval from the Clark County Commission Wednesday over the objection of three major casino companies that felt the $115 million project jammed too much onto a three-acre parcel.

Entrepreneur Marvin Lipshultz withstood an appeal from Station Casinos Inc., but will reduce the size of his original project and likely won't use the name he originally attached to the project, the South Beach resort.

Lipschultz's plan to build a 24-story hotel and time-share development and a 30,000-square-foot casino was objected to by Station, which owns the nearby Wild Wild West hotel-casino. Written objections also were presented by Mandalay Resort Group and MGM MIRAGE, which have properties on the Las Vegas Strip and Tropicana Avenue about a half-mile away.

In the hearing Wednesday, only Station, represented by attorney Ed Garcia, objected to the project on the grounds that land was too small to support a project of that magnitude and the traffic generated by the project would impact neighbors, including the Wild Wild West.

Commissioners voted 4-2 to reject the Station appeal and after the vote, Station spokeswoman Lesley Pittman said the company has no plans to appeal the decision.

Lipschultz characterized the outcome as a "victory for the little guy" against Station, the city's largest developer of neighborhood casinos, and two of the largest casino companies in the industry in Mandalay and MGM MIRAGE.

"It's pretty unbelievable," Lipschultz said after the vote.

But Lipschultz's proposal was scaled back from what he originally had presented a month ago.

Instead of a 460-unit resort, the project will have 420 rooms and the 30,000-square-foot casino will be scaled back to 27,000 square feet. A proportional number of parking spaces also will be eliminated, reductions Lipschultz agreed to in a bid to compromise with Station.

It's also likely the name the project has had since it was first proposed -- South Beach -- won't be used. Lipschultz said he recently received a letter informing him the South Beach name already is registered by another casino -- Station Casinos' Sunset Station.

Lipschultz is no stranger to unusual property naming issues. His holding company is called Gold Rush Casino & Hotel LLC, but he abandoned that as a potential name of the project because a small Henderson bar already has the Gold Rush name. He said he originally called the company "Gold Rush" when he was considering projects in Northern Nevada and had no naming conflicts there.

Sunset Station asked Lipschultz to cease and desist from using the South Beach name last month.

Pittman said it isn't likely her company would sell use of the name to Lipschultz, so he said he'd look for a new name.

"I guess we'll have to use another name," he said. "Do you have any ideas? If you do, let me know."

The three-acre property at the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Industrial Road presently has a six-story 150-room Howard Johnson hotel, an International House of Pancakes restaurant and a 5,000-square-foot casino, known as the Golden Palm, with 57 slot machines.

To mitigate traffic concerns with the new project, Lipschultz agreed to put in a right-turn lane at northbound Industrial Road.

The commission ultimately sided with Lipschultz after determining the traffic generated by the new project would likely be only slightly greater than what is generated by the existing use, since residents of the 300 time share units are less likely to have cars than patrons of neighborhood casinos.

Lipschultz's planning consultants told commissioners the biggest traffic problem in the neighborhood is generated by tractor-trailer rigs -- whose drivers most often patronize the Wild Wild West.

Lipschultz said the fight against Station Casinos, which he referred to last month as a "David-and-Goliath struggle," cost him $25,000 in legal and consultant fees.