Wynn to move quickly to build new Las Vegas Strip hotel

The new hotel, Wynn West, will be a 2,000-3,000-room property on the 38-acre Alon site Wynn purchased on Dec. 13 for $336 million. Wall Street analysts had believed Wynn was planning to warehouse the land, the former site of the New Frontier, for future use when market conditions were appropriate for expansion.

Wynn West will connect to the Beach Club outside Encore and Wynn Las Vegas via an “air conditioned umbilical hallway” that will run over the boulevard, Wynn said. Wynn said he has already built the necessary infrastructure outside the Beach Club because he knew he would eventually buy the plot that stood barren a decade.

“What we are going to do across the street is going to go rather quickly because I have been giving it thought for a long time. I don’t think the design and development period is going to be very long,” he told analysts during his fourth-quarter conference call.

While he did not give a specific schedule, he added he expected to complete work on his Las Vegas projects “in three years or so.”

‘Economic renaissance’

Wynn said he wants to push ahead with development on his undeveloped land stretching from Paradise Road to Sammy Davis Jr. Drive because he expects Las Vegas will boom over the next 20 years as tax breaks stimulate an “economic renaissance.”

Also more meeting space is built in the city to accommodate deep-pocked business travelers. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority this month started construction on a $1.4 billion convention center expansion opposite the Wynn Las Vegas and Encore that will finish in three years.

“Do you believe that Las Vegas will for the next decade or two continue to be a major destination city in the United States of America and the world?” Wynn asked. “If you believe that, then you can be fearless about accommodating these people at the best level and giving the highest level of value. Anyone that doesn’t understand that is missing the boat.”

Las Vegas suffered its first yearly decline in visitations last year in nearly a decade amid a slew of factors including weaker foreign currencies, major Strip room renovations and the Oct. 1 shooting that raised concerns about safety in the city.

“I am going to get those damn buildings up as fast as I can because I want to capture more of the absolutely inevitable visitor and tourist traffic that Las Vegas will experience in the next 15 to 20 years,” Wynn said about his projects.