{"id":7949,"date":"2014-08-31T16:32:14","date_gmt":"2014-08-31T16:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/2014\/08\/31\/las-vegas-a-history-of-landmarks-never-built\/"},"modified":"2014-08-31T16:32:14","modified_gmt":"2014-08-31T16:32:14","slug":"las-vegas-a-history-of-landmarks-never-built","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/2014\/08\/31\/las-vegas-a-history-of-landmarks-never-built\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas: A history of landmarks never built"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\t(UNLV Special Collections) A rendering by architect Martin Stern Jr. of the Xanadu proposed in 1975 for the corner of Tropicana Avenue and The Strip, where the Excalibur stands today. Stern had designed the International, now Westgate Las Vegas, and the original MGM Grand, which is now Bally\u2019s. The project stalled financially when Las Vegas officials insisted the builders pay for the installation of a new sewer line.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n\t(UNLV Special Collections) The cover of a 17-page prospectus released in 1936 seeking investors and promoting the El Sonador, which was planned for land now south of Sahara Avenue on Las Vegas Boulevard. The Spanish-style casino resort, which was never built, was envisioned with 100-150 rooms, large courtyard fountain, tennis courts and stables.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n\t(UNLV Special Collections) In September 1988, Pharaoh\u2019s Kingdom was announced as a 710-acre project east of Las Vegas Boulevard at Pebble Road. The $1.6 billion proposed project called for 10 hotels anchored by a 5,000 room tower, a massive casino, an 80-acre theme park, an 18-hole golf course, and 700 villas for permanent residents. Plans included a senior-citizens community and hospital, and actor Jack Klugman would direct a repertory theater that would bear his name. Funding for the project never materialized.<\/span><\/p>\n

\tBy ARNOLD M. KNIGHTLY
\n\tLAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
\n\tEditor\u2019s Note: Nevada 150 is a yearlong series highlighting the people, places and things that make up the history of the state.<\/p>\n

\tFor every casino resort idea that became reality and turned Las Vegas into a worldwide destination, it seems there are a few that never opened or even saw a shovel hit the ground.<\/p>\n

\tProjects themed after Elvis Presley, the World Wrestling Federation (now the WWE), Rolling Stone magazine and Harley-Davidson were promoted to investors. Station Casinos publicly discussed a $10 billion, CityCenter-type development on 110 acres, less than a year before its 2009 bankruptcy. Fontainebleau got all the way to the penthouse before financing collapsed. There are too many to mention, but a few stand out.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThere\u2019s a history of such over-the-top-projects that (Clark County) commissioners tend to look favorably on things because in the past people have suggested things that have seemed outrageous and they\u2019ve made them happen,\u201d said David G. Schwartz, director of UNLV\u2019s Center for Gaming Research.<\/p>\n

\tReno and Atlantic City also have seen interesting casino projects pitched but never built, Schwartz said, but no other gaming destination holds a candle to Las Vegas. Big gambles and broken dreams seem to be part of the community\u2019s fabric.<\/p>\n

\tDream on the desert<\/p>\n

\tEven in the city\u2019s early years, successful hoteliers and hopeful developers arrived with dreams to turn this stretch of desert into a resort area similar to ones in other railroad towns such as Santa Fe, N.M., or Palm Springs, Calif.<\/p>\n

\tLarry Gragg, chairman of the history and political science department at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Mo., said the 1920s and 1930s saw the first wave of developers pitching ideas, some before casinos were legalized.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe thinking was Las Vegas has the same attributes as Palm Springs and Santa Fe, it ought to work,\u201d said Gragg, who is researching resorts in early Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\tIn 1936, a group started promoting El Sonador on a plot of land where the unfinished Fontainebleau stands. The Spanish-style resort, promoted by a group from San Diego, promised 100 to 150 rooms, a casino, tennis courts, stables, a large fountain and a pool.<\/p>\n

\tEl Sonador\u2019s backers incorporated in January 1936, released a 17-page prospectus and turned to the railroad for potential backing, Gragg said. The railroad had already placed its investment money elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe Union Pacific decided to put a lot of money into the development of Sun Valley in Idaho, and they put about $1 million into that,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only thing they offered El Sonador was advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tWhile the idea survived nearly three years, funding never came and the project died, a recurring theme during the years.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cPeople come to town and throw an idea out, and if people don\u2019t pick up on it in Las Vegas, they would go on their way,\u201d Gragg said.<\/p>\n

\tAhead of its time<\/p>\n

\tOne of Schwartz\u2019s favorite projects that never was is the Xanadu because a lot of its elements appeared in later resorts.<\/p>\n

\tThe idea of a big central atrium wound up in the Luxor, and the building\u2019s step shape is similar to the Showboat in Atlantic City. Xanadu also proposed the first parking garage at a Strip resort.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSome of the ideas keep on resurfacing,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cIt was interesting because of the degree of integration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tMartin Stern Jr. had the credentials for the proposed Xanadu at the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard, where the Excalibur stands today. In 1975, the land was still vacant. Stern had designed the International, now Westgate Las Vegas, and the original MGM Grand, now Bally\u2019s. So when he pursued the 1,730-room Xanadu project, it zipped right through the county approval process.<\/p>\n

\tBut that part of the Strip\u2019s infrastructure was not prepared. While the resort would have had fewer rooms than the International (1,966) or MGM Grand (1,756), the project ultimately faltered because the sewer lines in the area could not accommodate it. Las Vegas officials wanted the builders to pay for the installation of a new line. The developers insisted it wasn\u2019t needed.<\/p>\n

\tThe project lives on, in a fashion, on a website maintained by the Center for Gaming Research. \u201cParadise Misplaced: The Xanadu Hotel Casino\u201d (at gaming.unlv.edu\/Xanadu\/) features renderings, historical documents and analysis, including the economic feasibility study done for the resort.<\/p>\n

\tPyramid pipe dream<\/p>\n

\tIn the late 1980s, a group of investors and developers pitched a project that would have brought an Egyptian theme to the desert a few years before the 1993 opening of the Luxor.<\/p>\n

\tThe rise-and-fall of Pharaoh\u2019s Kingdom happened seemingly overnight, not long before one of its developers ran afoul of the feds.<\/p>\n

\tIn September 1988, gaming executive Frank Gambella and out-of-state developer Anthony Silano pitched the 710-acre project east of Las Vegas Boulevard at Pebble Road.<\/p>\n

\tThe proposal called for 10 hotels anchored by a 5,000-room tower, a massive casino, an 80-acre theme park, an 18-hole golf course and 700 villas for permanent residents. In a strange twist, plans also included a senior community and hospital, and actor Jack Klugman had signed on to direct a repertory theater that would bear his name.<\/p>\n

\tTwo 400-foot towers and 120-story glass pyramids would shadow the development.<\/p>\n

\tIn the end, the resort was buried by its own $1.6 billion price tag. Despite the claims by Gambella, a former Golden Nugget and Dunes marketing executive, that the project was a done deal, it never passed the planning stage.<\/p>\n

\tIn a Feb. 27, 1991, article, Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith wrote that \u201cSilano was the so-called brain behind the pyramid pipe dream. When the project fizzled soon after it was announced, few familiar with Silano were shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tBy 1992, the man Gambella had called \u201canother Steve Wynn,\u201d despite his complete lack of gaming experience, had pleaded guilty in New Orleans to federal conspiracy charges. Silano\u2019s fundraising efforts for Pharaoh\u2019s Kingdom caught the attention of authorities, including financial support from then-Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.<\/p>\n

\tIn 1997, Silano described to a Los Angeles federal court how he and associates hacked Marcos\u2019 Switzerland bank accounts in search of assets following the former dictator\u2019s death in 1989.<\/p>\n

\tGambella would eventually watch as the Luxor was built, a project he told the Review-Journal in late 1991 made him want to \u201cput my foot right through the television.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tNo iceberg needed<\/p>\n

\tBuoyed by the worldwide success of a silver-screen love story framed by the deaths of more than 1,500 people, a Titanic-themed resort was floated by casino owner and failed mayoral candidate Bob Stupak.<\/p>\n

\tHis 15-story Titanic would set sail on a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard where the Thunderbird, now the Aruba Hotel and Club, sat south of Charleston Boulevard.<\/p>\n

\tBut it wasn\u2019t an iceberg that sank the idea. Vocal opposition from residents of the historic John S. Park neighborhood prompted the Las Vegas City Council to vote down a zone change for Stupak in May 1999.<\/p>\n

\tAnd even if the neighbors had not torpedoed the $400 million ship, Stupak also faced a lawsuit from a developer who claimed to own the \u201cTitanic Hotel &Casino\u201d trademark.<\/p>\n

\tUndeterred, Stupak promptly announced another ill-fated scheme: a $20 million plan to restore the Moulin Rouge, the historic property on West Bonanza Road that was the first integrated casino-hotel in Las Vegas. That never happened either, but the casino mogul who died in September 2009 did leave his mark on the valley\u2019s skyline with the Stratosphere.<\/p>\n

\tReaching for the Moon<\/p>\n

\tWhat\u2019s a better way to shoot for the moon in Las Vegas than to shop a resort-casino resort to developers based on the actual moon.<\/p>\n

\tOne of the more bizarrely themed projects ever touted was the $5 billion, 10,000-room Moon Resort and Casino planned for 250 acres at, well, the creator never said where.<\/p>\n

\tBritish Columbia resident Michael Henderson unveiled his lunar dreams in 2002 in hopes of attracting investors but was quickly grounded.<\/p>\n

\tSome of the project\u2019s promotional material still lingers online, evoking \u201ca technological and environmental masterpiece that will transport guests to the Earth\u2019s closest celestial partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tPlans called for moon buggy rides, an International Space Station and a terrestrial biosphere. The centerpiece would have been a 350-foot-tall multi-floor casino inside a replica of the moon.<\/p>\n

\tAnd with each ensuing announcement, the dream grew grander. By May 2003, Henderson said Moon would have 50 restaurants, 10 permanent live shows and television and movie production studios. \u201cPeople are now beginning to understand the Moon is realistic and will definitely happen in the near future,\u201d the release stated.<\/p>\n

\tSchwartz said projects are often announced by developers hoping to attract investors. \u201cThat definitely factors into it. It\u2019s a lot easier to raise money if you can say, \u2018Hey, it\u2019s already been announced, it\u2019s already been approved,\u2019 than if it\u2019s just an idea you have and keep to yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tMoon never even made it to the launch pad. All that seemed to get built was a really nice model and an Internet landing site for the project, which still exists at moonworldresorts.com.<\/p>\n

\tNo crown to fit<\/p>\n

\tWhile Moon arrived as a concept without a developer, some developers fade in and out of the Las Vegas landscape and leave nothing behind but a trail of failed projects.<\/p>\n

\tChristopher Milam is one such developer.<\/p>\n

\tWhile Milam was most recently connected to a controversial 2012 Henderson stadium and arena complex deal that ended in a lawsuit, the Texas businessman had already tried and failed to launch an even bigger project.<\/p>\n

\tSix years earlier, he proposed the $5 billion Crown Las Vegas, a casino with a 5,000-room, 1,064-foot hotel tower on the then-vacant Wet \u2018n Wild site next to the recently opened SLS Las Vegas (formerly the Sahara). His original request was for a 1,888-foot tower, but airspace concerns from McCarran International Airport, Nellis Air Force Base and the Federal Aviation Administration got more than 800 feet trimmed from what would have been the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n

\tEven the scaled-down tower would have rivaled the height of the Stratosphere, less than a mile north on Las Vegas Boulevard.<\/p>\n

\tWhile Crown Las Vegas was Milam\u2019s brainchild, he was able to lure Australia\u2019s richest man to the project: billionaire James Packer of Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd., who has long tried to get into the Las Vegas casino industry, so far without success.<\/p>\n

\tIn May 2007, Packer paid $22.5 million for a 37.5 percent stake in the project. Ten months later, Packer was out, and Milam was trying to refinance another deal for the land, which he never owned.<\/p>\n

\tDreams continue<\/p>\n

\tSchwartz said grand development dreams are still being dreamt for Las Vegas. Recently a group of Russian investors proposed building a second Strip with 30 to 40 hotel-casinos.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThey actually approached me to do an economic analysis to say this wouldn\u2019t harm the existing properties,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cThat was definitely one of the more over-the-top ones. Of course, they didn\u2019t have the land to build it on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tSchwartz admitted that he\u2019s not sure if the group was serious or if it was some type of satire.<\/p>\n

\tIn Vegas, sometimes it\u2019s hard to tell.<\/p>\n

\n

Replies:<\/h3>\n
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Posted by:<\/strong> Dr Crapology on August 31, 2014, 10:51 pm<\/p>\n

Have heard of only a few of these. Most were before I became interested in the Vegas scene. But most interesting.<\/p>\n

\tDoc<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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