$3B Las Vegas resort hotel, reborn as The Drew, scheduled for completion in 2020

Dive Brief:

The stalled $2.5 billion Fontainebleau Las Vegas resort project on the city's famed Strip is getting a second chance and a new name, The Drew Las Vegas, according to the R eno Gazette Journal.
Work on the luxury hotel stopped when the Great Recession hit, and the project went bankrupt in 2009, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. New York developer Steve Witkoff purchased the 60-story property in August 2017 and is working with Marriott International to rebrand the nearly 4,000-room resort with the hotel giant's Edition and JW Marriott brands. The property will also feature a casino, entertainment and retail space; an 8-acre pool deck; and 500,000 square feet of meeting space.
The project is scheduled for completion in 2020, which is when the Las Vegas Convention Center expansion should be complete. The additional rooms at The Drew, as well as those at other new hotel projects, are expected to help accommodate the extra 600,000 annual visitors.

Dive Insight:

Another formerly delayed Las Vegas project, located next to The Drew, also continues to move forward. Led by former NBA player Jackie Robinson, the $1.3 billion development, anchored by an arena, had a ceremonial groundbreaking in 2014 but fizzled out shortly thereafter while Robinson settled financial and legal issues. Site work continues on that project, which is expected to include a 22,000-seat venue with a retractable roof, a 500-room hotel and 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurants.

Also providing plenty of new rooms for conventioneers and tourists will be the Resorts World Chinese-theme development. The first phase of the $4 billion resort is expected to provide more than 3,300 rooms and then a total of 7,000 when the project is built out. The resort will also feature a casino, plenty of public space, a movie theater, convention center and replicas of famous Chinese attractions like the Forbidden City and Great Wall of China.

Las Vegas will also host a new type of visitor — NFL fans — when the Raiders begin playing in their new $2 billion stadium near the Strip. The team has put construction on a fast track with Mortenson Construction and McCarthy Building Companies at the helm. Construction will be carried out according to an accelerated schedule of 30 months, which will allow the Raiders to move into the new venue in time for the 2020 NFL season.