Construction Resumes on Fontainebleau Las Vegas
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The sky is finally clearing at the long-dormant Fontainebleau Las Vegas site as construction revved up again yesterday on the project that commenced nearly 15 years ago. Jeffrey Soffer’s Fontainebleau Development plans to open the hotel and casino at the end of 2023, ahead of the 2024 Super Bowl landing in Vegas.
Located on 25 acres at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip near the convention center, the 67-story luxury hotel is about 75 percent complete. Plans include 3,700 hotel rooms and 550,000-square feet of convention space, plus restaurants, shops, pools, a spa, and more.
It’s been a long, messy journey for the luxury hotel and casino property, which has changed hands multiple times in the years since it was conceived. Now that the original developer Jeffrey Soffer is back in possession of it, it’s come full circle.
Construction on the Fontainebleau started in 2007 with plans to open in 2008 on the former El Rancho land, but the project went over its budget and a Chapter 11 bankruptcy forced construction to go quiet before the project was complete.
Businessman Carl Icahn bought the bankrupt project in 2010, and then sold it in August 2017 to Witkoff Group and New Valley LLC for $600 million (more than four times what he paid for it, according to Forbes). That group planned to open the resort as the Drew Las Vegas. Marriott signed on to the project in 2018, but officially pulled out of the project in October of this year.
Fontainebleau Development and partner Koch Real Estate Investments re-acquired the property in February 2021. Upon opening, Fontainebleau Development will be the sole operator of the hotel.
Construction alone on the project will create about 3,200 jobs, while the resort plans to employ about 6,000 permanent workers once it opens.
