The North End of the Las Vegas Strip has been growing in fits and starts, but as sort of a no man’s land it has had trouble gaining traction as a competitor to its neighbors, the traditional Strip, a heavily developed and walkable section of Las Vegas Boulevard to the South, and the revitalized and also walkable Old Downtown to the North. The North End of the Strip boasts coveted room for development but has not had the critical mass needed to woo visitors looking to explore more than one spot. That is about to change.
The very first beachhead was the Stratosphere Casino, which has always been better known for its innovative thrill rides (like high altitude bungee jumping) then as a place to stay, eat or gamble, and remains at the lower end of the Strip’s hospitality spectrum. For years, the Stratosphere stood alone in the area, until the much more recent addition of the hipper, more upscale SLS Las Vegas, which never really caught on in Sin City like its better known LA and South Beach outposts (it was a ghost town last time I visited). But the SLS does boast destination dining, is a convenient stop on the city’s monorail line, and may have just been a bit ahead of its time - the area is suddenly hot.
Next to open is the city’s first W Hotel, really an expansion of the existing SLS. It will debut on December 1 (official grand opening celebration will be in February 2017), taking over a 289-room tower in the SLS. The W Las Vegas is the latest in what has quietly become a Las Vegas signature, the elevated hotel-within-a-hotel concept. I have written on this at length, as these are almost universally the best choices for lodging in a city that thinks nothing of hour long waits to check in or out with front desk areas that resemble airport coach counters. Read “Why Las Vegas’ Secret Hotels Are The Best Hotels - For Every Budget” here.
Like most good hotels-within-hotels, the W Las Vegas will boast a private entrance for guests, and will offer its signature brand amenities, one of which is lively social venues, which will include the WET rooftop pool and The Lving Room lounge. The W will also offer its trademark 24-hour FIT gym, Away spa, and the most meeting space of any W property to date. Guests can access all the existing SLS dining options, including the very popular Bazaar Meat by celebrity chef José Andrés; Katsuya; Cleo; Umami Burger; 800 Degrees Neopolitan Pizza; Northside Café; Chinese Kitchen; and The Perq, as well as additional nightlife venues.
The next new resort opening comes just two days later: The Lucky Dragon is scheduled for a December 3rd launch, a much-needed neighborhood shot in the arm. It is a boutique property, especially by Vegas standards, with just 203 rooms (22 of them suites). Its point of distinction is that it claims to the first property in the city designed and built from the ground up to create an authentic Asian cultural and gaming experience, and is meant to appeal to Asian-Americans as well as overseas visitors. Seven Magazine reported that signage will primarily be in Chinese (as already reflected in the hotel website), all front line employees will speak Mandarin and/or Cantonese, and authentic food will be stressed to such a high degree (in five Asian-inspired concepts) that the hotel will skip over otherwise “mandatory” Vegas stalwarts, with neither a pizzeria nor steakhouse (not to worry, one of the city’s very best, Sinatra favorite the Golden Steer, is literally next door).
The Lucky Dragon will have an emphasis on table games including Baccarat and Pai Gow as well as slots, a high limit gaming area and a luxury VIP gaming parlor, a spa with treatments including reflexology and acupuncture, and an indoor-outdoor Tea Garden featuring an extensive list curated by what it says is Las Vegas’ only tea sommelier.
The Lucky Dragon is a big deal as the first all new hotel to open recently on the Strip, but its tiny compared to the next Asian-themed casino resort headed to the North End: Las Vegas’ next mega-resort will the 3,500 room Resorts World, set on an 86-acre lot with a cost estimated to be somewhere between $4-$7 billion. Already under construction, it is owned by Malaysia’s Genting Group, which also operates New York City’s first and only casino, Resorts World in Queens near Kennedy airport.
Slated for a 2019 opening, the resort will boast a “celestial sphere,” which will momentarily flash selfie-style images of guests, a feature clearly aimed at gratifying millennial customers. Other possible signatures on the drawing board include live pandas, a 50-foot replica Chinese lantern which will rise and drop 56 stories, a Chinese garden larger than the Bellagio’s Conservatory overlooked by a row of restaurants, outdoor water features, and a 150,000-square-foot casino floor. Plans call for three distinct hotels and a laundry list of restaurants that will include, but not be limited to, a variety of authentic regional Chinese cuisines. Overall, the main building looks in renderings like a more graceful, curvaceous, airline wing-shaped take on the classic three-tower cookie cutter Las Vegas foundation.
The North End is definitely growing, but it will still need to fight for market share - as I reported a few months ago, the Strip’s biggest player, MGM Resorts International, just began a $450 million total remake of the 2,700 room resort formerly known as the Monte Carlo into a luxury resort called Park MGM, which will include yet another hotel-within-hotel concept, a 292-room spin-off of very popular New York City lifestyle hotel the NoMad.
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