Fontainebleau Las Vegas names new president

Longtime hotel executive Cliff Atkinson has been named president of Fontainebleau Las Vegas as the resort project moves closer to its long-awaited opening next year.

Atkinson, who assumed the new role last week, has a long resume as a hotel executive in New York, San Francisco, and, for nearly the last decade, Las Vegas. His most recent role on the Strip was as the president and chief operating officer of Luxor.

“When we set out to identify a visionary leader for our next-generation luxury resort, Cliff’s knowledge and relevant hands-on approach and experience, coupled with the perspective gained from nearly 30 years in hospitality, made him the unequivocal choice for Fontainebleau Las Vegas,” Fontainebleau Development Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Soffer said in a statement included with the announcement. “With Cliff guiding our team, we move forward with even greater confidence and trust in our vision for the future of the Fontainebleau brand and Las Vegas.”

Soffer’s firm first broke ground on the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas in 2007. But the economy tumbled soon after amid the real estate market collapse, and the unfinished resort went bankrupt in 2009 before changing ownership multiple times over the next decade. Last year, Soffer’s firm partnered with Kansas conglomerate Koch Industries to acquire the project once again, bringing the long-stalled project full circle.

Atkinson, 47, said the history of the Fontainebleau property is not lost on him.

“I’ve been in the community. I’ve watched it, watched it change,” Atkinson said in an interview Monday. “It’s a great story about not only how the town reinvents itself, but also an individual property like this.”

Atkinson describes his vision for the property as about delivering an “unparalleled service experience,” one that brings “luxury without stuffiness.”

Prior to his time at Luxor, Atkinson was the senior vice president of hotel strategy for MGM Resorts International. He has also worked as the general manager for Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group in Las Vegas and San Francisco, as well as for Gramercy Park Hotel in New York. Those experiences gave Atkinson an appreciation “for how special this town really is,” he said.

Atkinson’s main focus out of the gate is putting together the best team possible and then working toward building out the rest of the resort’s workforce, he said. The company has said previously that the resort will support 6,000 permanent jobs once complete.

The 67-floor Fontainebleau Las Vegas will have more than 3,700 rooms and is slated to open in the fourth quarter of 2023.