Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas spa and golf resort opens

In a town where distances for businesses are often measured in terms of how far they are from the Las Vegas Strip, the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas resort is an anomaly.

Today, the Ritz opened its first Nevada resort about 17 miles from the Strip -- between the modest outskirts of Henderson and Lake Mead off Lake Mead Drive. It is only the second resort, after the Hyatt Regency's debut in 1999, to open at Lake Las Vegas.

Still, General Manager Doug Brooks isn't concerned about being too isolated from the action.

"It's the best of both worlds," Brooks said. "We've got this great destination spa and golf resort and miles away you've got the largest adult entertainment capital of the world (from which) guests can retreat back into quiet solitude."

The Ritz-Carlton chain, which is owned by Marriott, has spent years scouting the Las Vegas valley for a site.

In 1996, Marriott announced plans to build a resort in northwest Las Vegas near Floyd Lamb State Park. The following year, MGM Grand Inc. announced it was negotiating with Marriott International Inc. and its Ritz-Carlton affiliate to build a giant hotel as well as a small luxury hotel next to the MGM Grand.

Las Vegas has witnessed a slew of luxury hotel and casino openings since those deals fell through. They include the 1999 openings of the Four Seasons Hotel -- the first five-star, non-casino hotel to open on the Las Vegas Strip -- the Resort at Summerlin, Mandalay Bay, the Venetian and Paris Las Vegas. The Resort at Summerlin, then owned by Regent International Hotels, was sold out of bankruptcy to another company and is now managed by Marriott as the J.W. Marriott Las Vegas resort.

"It has been a long-term process," Brooks said of the company's search for a hotel site. "We recognize the growth of Nevada and specifically Las Vegas and we recognize that our customers are attracted by all the features it has to offer."

Ritz-Carlton guests like natural landscapes and water amenities, both attractions of Lake Las Vegas, said Brooks, who previously ran the Ritz-Carlton Rose Hall in Jamaica.

Like other new hotels in recent years, the Ritz will offer a casino. Unlike some competitors, however, the casino will be managed by a separate entity and accessible from a walkway that allows hotel guests to completely bypass the gambling floor. Cook Inlet Region Inc. -- a real estate conglomerate owned by an Indian tribe in Alaska -- will own the neighboring Casino MonteLago. It is expected to open in April.

Cook Inlet also has an ownership stake in the Hyatt Regency and the Ritz-Carlton. Sybro LLC, a company operated by former Caesars Palace President Dan Reichartz, will manage the casino for the tribe.

The Ritz, with 349 rooms, has a powerful brand that will stand out from the competition, Brooks said.

"I don't look at it as competition so much as complementary (business)," he said. "We have a very well-established brand. I'd like to think we'd bring new customers to Las Vegas and Lake Las Vegas."

"At the end of the day we all compete with each other in some form or fashion. But guests and leisure travelers will seek their preferred style of hotel."

Michael Gasta, a Las Vegas consultant who matches business meeting groups with hotels, agrees.

"I believe that it can become a destination of its own," said Gasta, president of America's Guest. "There is a niche of high-end customers that will love that type of environment."

The Ritz will help the Hyatt -- which has had challenges operating for nearly four years as the only resort at Lake Las Vegas -- attract new business, he added.

"They have a client database for group business that travels at that level -- it's first class."

Unlike the Marriott and some other major hotel brands, Ritz-Carlton doesn't have a frequent traveler loyalty club to draw from. Still, the company is strong in the group business and business incentive market, Brooks said.

Business incentives are often crafted by companies as rewards for higher sales. The Ritz is a brand that signifies the top of its class, Brooks said.

The property's style is best-described as a slight touch of Renaissance Italy. Its most distinguishing characteristic a life-size replica of Florence's Ponte Vecchio bridge built over Lake Las Vegas' roughly 320-acre, man-made lake. The Ritz offers luxury hotel suites on the second floor of the buildings on the bridge, while the first floor will eventually feature boutiques and other small retail shops.

The Ritz-Carlton is only the second resort of what could eventually develop as a cluster of five or more high-end hotels around the lake.

This month, Lake Las Vegas developer Transcontinental Development Corp. completed master planning and zoning for the final, roughly 1,000 acres located at the north shore, now barren hills of dirt where some of the hotel industry's top names may one day stand.

Plans at the north end call for a Tom Fazio-designed golf course and a man-made island of about 60 acres where another resort -- along with some retail and residential development -- could take shape.

The island would be created by cutting a channel behind a mound of land rather than filling in the lake with dirt.

Visitors likely won't see another resort for at least the next three years, developers say.

The Ritz-Carlton was built in about 18 months, a bit longer than usual for the type of property because of the logistics of constructing the bridge, said Brad Nelson, chief operating officer of Santa Barbara-based Transcontinental Development.

Lake Las Vegas' resorts will likely take about six months to clear city planners and another 12 to 18 months to build, leading to a roughly three-year development timeframe, he said.

Nelson declined to reveal names of interested hotels for future development but said the company has fielded calls from boutique properties with about 100 rooms to major resorts.

Hoteliers have been increasingly cautious given the economic downturn and threats of war, he said.

"The caution relates to the whole industry," he said. "It's not related to Vegas or whether it's a gaming or non-gaming development."

After Las Vegas, the Ritz-Carlton expects to open similar properties in Washington, D.C. and Grand Lakes, Colo. over the next few weeks, Brooks said.

"Clearly, what's going on in the world is a concern to anyone in the hospitality business," he said. "What we're excited about is that Las Vegas as a destination was the first to come back strong (after Sept. 11) and carry us through."

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