Columnist Jeff German: County is powerless to stop feud

Friday, July 16, 2004 | 10:52 a.m.

The way things are going it may take a Nobel Peace Prize winner to resolve the high-stakes battle between casino giants Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson.

The task of peacemaker may not be within the reach of the County Commission.

Wynn and Adelson, who each pull their share of political clout, are preparing once more to do battle before the commission next week.

Adelson has asked the commission to revise some of the parking and landscaping conditions it set last month (at Wynn's request) before the Venetian owner can proceed with his $1.6 billion expansion project.

The restrictions were put in place after Wynn's people accused Adelson of cutting corners on the expansion plans to the detriment of Wynn's $2.4 billion Wynn Las Vegas project across the street from the Venetian.

Adelson, however, hasn't thrown in the towel. He now wants some of the conditions lifted so that he can start constuction on an underground parking garage.

The commission will consider his request on Wednesday, but there's no guarantee it'll be able to bring peace to the Strip this time, either.

Judging from the opposition voiced by Wynn's people this week, the meeting will be just as contentious as last month's meeting, which ended up with high-priced lawyers and consultants on both sides calling each other names like school children.

Wynn and Adelson have never been good friends. In this space in March they branded each other a liar.

Adelson believes Wynn is jealous of his success at the Venetian and is using his political muscle to interfere with the Venetian's expansion.

Wynn contends this is simply a matter of ensuring that Adelson plays by the rules. Wynn insists Adelson has failed to incorporate sufficient parking into his project. He worries that it will have an impact on parking at Wynn Las Vegas, which opens in April, and he has rallied other nearby Venetian competitors to his side.

In its attempt to resolve the king-size dispute last month, the County Commission ordered Adelson to come up with a minimum of 7,600 parking spaces, either on or off the Venetian site, before he can start construction. Adelson was short about 2,000 spaces.

His consultants recently told county planners that he found 1,819 spaces at the New Frontier and another 200 at the Venetian construction site. He hopes to use a shuttle service to transport employees and guests between the New Frontier and the Venetian.

But Wynn's people aren't happy about the parking plan.

Marc Rubinstein, general counsel for Wynn Las Vegas, says there are several flaws in the plan -- including the right of the New Frontier to take back 25 percent of its spaces on a month's notice.

"The bottom line is here we go again," Rubinstein says. "They're not making full disclosure of their parking situation."

Wynn lawyers opposed Adelson's newest plan at two separate town board meetings this week, and they are ready to do it again at Wednesday's County Commission meeting.

"We derive no joy out of this," Rubinstein says. "Anyone who thinks this is Steve Wynn flexing his muscles is way off base.

"This is a terrible set of circumstances, where two neighbors can't resolve their differences."

Unfortunately, these aren't any two neighbors. These are ego-driven businessmen who have hundreds of millions of dollars invested on the Strip and carry around big sticks to match.

Asking elected officials to come between them is a recipe for failure.