Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Jeff German: Strip thunders when casino titans lock horns

Jeff German's column appears Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in the Sun. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4067.

You have to do a lot of ducking when you come between two battling giants, which is what I did on Tuesday when I spoke to Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson.

The strong-willed casino moguls, Strip neighbors who have never been the best of friends, are in the middle of an escalating rift over Adelson's planned $1.3 billion expansion of the Venetian, which is across the street from Wynn's $2.4 billion Wynn Las Vegas.

On Tuesday each man accused the other of being a liar, which is an indication that this high-stakes battle isn't going to be ending anytime soon.

As Wynn told me, this is a fight over making sure Adelson plays by the rules as he designs the Venetian expansion. And so Wynn has gone to the unusual step of pointing out to county planners what he considers to be flaws in his competitor's project.

So far they're listening. The expansion plans were supposed to go before the County Planning Commission next week, but the matter is being taken off the agenda so that Adelson can address some of the concerns Wynn pointed out.

Wynn said he's worried that Adelson has been cutting corners and not incorporating enough parking spaces and landscaping into the project. The shortage of parking would take up valuable spaces at other casinos on that corner of the Strip, including Wynn Las Vegas, which is expected to open a year from now, Wynn said.

Wynn also charged that Adelson is trying to build a new 718-foot tower too close to Sands Avenue (a busy street both megaresorts will share), which could create an "atrocity of monumental proportions."

To Wynn, making sure Adelson plays fair is a matter of protecting his own $2.4 billion investment.

"I will not stand by while he blatantly disregards every guideline for parking, landscaping and setbacks we've ever used in the history of development on the Strip," Wynn said. "I intend to oppose this vigorously."

Adelson, you might imagine, has a different take on this fight.

He told me Tuesday that Wynn has been bad-mouthing the Venetian project because his ego has been bruised over expansion plans that call for the hotel tower to be 104 feet taller than Wynn Las Vegas, which is expected to stretch to 614 feet when it's completed. Adelson said he didn't deliberately plan to trump the height of Wynn's tower. It just happened that way.

"I think he's just got a thing about a building ending up taller than his," Adelson said. "Everybody knows Steve Wynn has a big ego."

That ego, Adelson said, also has prompted Wynn to make "inappropriate" disparaging remarks about him to some of Adelson's people.

Adelson said Wynn personally raised concerns about the tower's height in a conversation with him a couple of months ago and then started causing trouble for him with county planners.

Wynn called that charge "ridiculous," swearing he never voiced any concerns about the project's height.

"This has nothing to do with ego," Wynn said. "He's a liar. He was trying to jam this through, and he got (angry) at me for stopping him. I begged him not to do it this way."

But Adelson countered: "He's the liar. He wants to design our building, but that's not his prerogative. As far as Steve Wynn is concerned nobody can do anything right but Steve Wynn."

Then Adelson added, "He's not the king of the planning process."

Or is he?

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