Las Vegas

[lofter1]

Las Vegas is one of the fastest growing cities in the USA.

This forum will cover various issues about Vegas: where it's going , what it's doing and what it all might mean...

Real Estate: The Village Hits Vegas
Newsweek

Aug. 15, 2005 issue - Vegas has its gondolas. Vegas has its Eiffel Tower. Vegas even has its Celine Dion (blame Canada). But what it doesn't have, says developer Mark Advent, is "a real, organic city center where people can gather." His fix? Build one. And make it just like New York's.

Meet "East Village." Set to open in mid-2007, Advent's 44-acre, $225 million retail complex will give gritty lower Manhattan a very Vegas makeover. What to expect: a "Grand Central" market, a "Meatpacking District" nightlife zone, cops on horseback, surly hot-dog vendors and a "Diamond District," where shoppers, promises Advent, can "haggle for deals." Not that you'd find any of these (mostly midtown) attractions in the actual East Village. Says partner Mark Vlassopulos: "It's an hommage."
Sin City has bitten into the Big Apple before: the glam New York, New York resort, also an Advent creation, opened in 1997. But lately Vegas has ditched uptown glitz for downtown cool. With seminal punk club CBGB facing an Aug. 31 eviction, owner Hilly Kristal is mulling a move to Fremont Street. "The mayor really wants me there," says Kristal, who has photographed each of CBGB's graffitied walls for later reproduction. "Vegas has sought me out." And on Aug. 27, "Avenue Q" (whose puppet protagonists live on N.Y.C.'s fringe) debuts at the new Wynn hotel. The only thing missing? "Outdoor pickle barrels," says Kristal. "Not in that heat."

—Andrew Romano
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.



A rendering of the East Village project that is planned for a site near McCarran International Airport.


BUSINESS PRESS
BY TONY ILLIA

http://www.lvbusinesspress.com/artic...ews/news04.txt

A knockoff of New York City's East Village -- with its own version of the city's Meatpacking District and Washington Square -- is planned for 44 acres at the northwest corner of Tropicana Avenue and Paradise Road.

The 27-building, 959,645-square-foot, retail-office-entertainment complex is being developed by Mark Advent, a developer of the New York-New York hotel-casino.

Its first phase will contain about 17 buildings, ranging from one- to four-stories, and is expected to be completed in 2007. Construction costs could reach $225 million, although no general contractor has been named.

McCarran International Airport owns the land, which is currently zoned for structures with a maximum height of 50 feet. County planners recommend that county commissioners OK the height request.

"It is compatible with the surrounding land uses and with review and approval by Clark County Aviation and the Federal Aviation Administration it should be an asset to the area," reads the agenda item for Wednesday's meeting.

The project consists of 401,045 square feet of retail shops, with a Grand Central Public Market and a possible culinary institute. Roughly 171,900 square feet of space is dedicated to restaurant and dining venues, including bistros, cafes, 24-hour diners, coffee houses and bars.

Additional features call for a 72,700-square-foot conference and banquet center, equipped with high-tech audio-visual and teleconferencing capabilities, available for rent to groups. There is also a 15,400-square-foot offsite airport check-in area with a 4,407-space parking structure.

The multilevel East Village will also house 263,200 square feet of loft-style office space, plus a 1,500-seat theater-in-the-round featuring Swedish magician Joe Labero. A Diamond District, patterned after the one on 48th Street in Manhattan, will contain about 16 different jewelry retailers. The remaining outlets will house mid- to high-end national and regional tenants.

"East Village has been designed as a destination lifestyle and entertainment center," Advent says.

Advent, whose partners include Mark Vlassopulos and Stephen Chen, acquired the 50-year lease on the nearly vacant parcel from Phoenix-based ILX Resorts Inc. for $18 million in 2004.

Beverly Hills-based Canyon Capital Realty Advisors provided a $25 million bridge loan for the acquisition and start-up planning.

CB Richard Ellis' Zack Hussain and Penny Mendlovic are the leasing agents. Rental rates will range from $40- to $46-per-square-foot, triple-net for retail. Office rates have yet to be determined.

"We have had an overflow of interest from retailer amenities for the business district and neighboring event venues," says Mendlovic. "The reaction has been nothing short of phenomenal."


Potemkin East Village coming to Vegas
Friday, July 29, 2005

A Vegas developer is creating a 44-acre East-Village-themed shopping center:

Las Vegas developer Mark Advent's "East Village" retail complex plan, complete with faux Washington Square and an entertainment zone called the "Meat Packing District." But ever since stumbling across this ultimate show of hubris we've been hungering for more. Other than calling it the East Village, what will make the 44-acre commercial playground identifiable as such (CBGB hasn't packed up for there, yet)? Well, if this promotional electronic pamphlet is to be believed, it's a Ray's Pizza, a traffic cop, a hot dog cart and some roadside banners.


Las Vegas' East Village: They Nailed It
Wednesday, July 20, 2005, by Joey

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005/..._nailed_it.php



We've previously pointed out Las Vegas developer Mark Advent's "East Village" retail complex plan, complete with faux Washington Square and an entertainment zone called the "Meat Packing District." But ever since stumbling across this ultimate show of hubris we've been hungering for more. Other than calling it the East Village, what will make the 44-acre commercial playground identifiable as such (CBGB hasn't packed up for there, yet)? Well, if this promotional electronic pamphlet is to be believed, it's a Ray's Pizza, a traffic cop, a hot dog cart and some roadside banners. So alive, this city! More mock-ups and a site map after the jump. Enjoy the erosion of all you hold dear!

[Fabrizio]

Isn´t it funny that the Las Vegas version of these "cool" NY neigborhoods are made up of the kind of buildings that developers in NYC regularly want to tear down? The very buildings that identify NYC as NYC.

Perhaps someday for a taste some of the old neigborhoods we will need to go to theme parks...

[TLOZ Link5]

You have got to be kidding me.

Look at all that parking, also.

[TomAuch]

Maybe CBGB could relocate to Vegas if they are kicked out of the East Village.

[TLOZ Link5]

Originally Posted by TomAuch

Maybe CBGB could relocate to Vegas if they are kicked out of the East Village.

If CB wants to sell out, then good riddance.

[lofter1]

Be careful what you ask for...


CBGB Update: Vegas, Baby?

Monday, March 28, 2005, by Lockhart

If CBGB can't find a way to save itself, the next stop may be Las Vegas. Blogger Brooklyn Vegan finds word in the pages of Metro that the Strip beckons: "Las Vegas here I come,' said Hilly Kristal, the club's owner and manager, if he can't save the club. Kristal also said that the rumors about Mark Cuban saving the club are not true. 'He wants to help out, maybe have a big project on television,' Kristal said."

· CBGB To Move to Vegas? [Brooklyn Vegan]


CBGB to move to Vegas?

March 28, 2005

metro, the free NYC paper that accidentally declared WinneroftheSAT the blog of the day recently, reported today that CBGB is considering a move to Vegas.

"'Las Vegas here I come,' said Hilly Kristal, the club's owner and manager, if he can't save the club"

[Kolbster]

Speaking about Las Vegas, Trump is also investing out there, Ivana Trump is the name of the new tower. It is 80 stories (73 of which are residential), it rises 923 feet and has 946 residential units.

Here's the official website
http://www.ivanalasvegas.com/about.htm

Photo Gallery
http://www.ivanalasvegas.com/photos.htm

Fact Sheet
http://www.ivanalasvegas.com/facts.htm

[lofter1]

East Village West

By STEVEN KURUTZ
NY Times, August 14, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/ny...ty/14vega.html

CONTRARY to popular belief, Las Vegas is not, in fact, a city where you can find everything. True, you can gorge on prime rib for breakfast or play blackjack at 3 a.m. And not far from the city limits you can engage in the kind of adult activities that have been made illegal in 49 other states. However, according to Mark Advent, a casino developer and Las Vegas resident, something is missing from civic life.

"There's no place where I can stroll around," Mr. Advent said the other day on the phone from Los Angeles International Airport, where he was catching a flight to London. Las Vegas is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, but, he said, there are no neighborhoods, no pockets, no gathering places. "There's no sense of community, like you have in New York," he said.

And so, in true Las Vegas fashion, Mr. Advent has decided to remedy what he sees as the city's lack of a neighborhood fabric by building one of his own. On the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Paradise Road, on a vacant patch of desert near the airport, will rise East Village, a retail-office-entertainment complex inspired by Manhattan's strollable streets. The $250 million project is tentatively scheduled to open in 2007.

Playing fast and loose with geographical borders, the development will contain a scale model of the Washington Square arch, a meatpacking district and a diamond district, which, as New Yorkers know, is a good 30 blocks north of the East Village. "It's not an exact replica," Mr. Advent explained, adding that the complex was more an homage to great neighborhoods (which explains the part of the development based on Pike Place Market in Seattle). The name, he said, stems from the location, which is one mile east of the Las Vegas strip, and from the fact that "it really is like a little village."

"It has texture," he added. "A tattoo shop, cobblestone streets, a bakery."

As it turns out, Mr. Advent has a bit of a history exporting the streets of Manhattan to the scorched Las Vegas earth. He was the mastermind behind New York-New York, the mammoth casino and hotel that opened on the strip in 1997 and has, among other things, copies of the Chrysler Building and the Statue of Liberty and a SoHo village shopping district. (It does not contain a Ray's Pizza, an attraction that is said to be in consideration this time.)

Mr. Advent had planned to take "Saturday Night Live" to Las Vegas - "restaurants, live entertainment." The head of NBC at the time was less enthusiastic. Then one night, after a couple of martinis, Mr. Advent had a eureka moment: "I thought, let's build all of New York. Let's build the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty - the whole thing." New York-New York was born.

Given his Robert Moses-like ambition and his résumé thus far, one would be forgiven for thinking that Mr. Advent was born in New York. Actually, he comes from a small town in Ohio, which he describes as "Mayberry - one cop car, no stoplight."

Mr. Advent, who is in his mid-40's and has a round, open face, still has the sunny can-do spirit of a Midwesterner. But he maintains an apartment in Westchester, spends about a third of his year in New York and admits to loving what he calls "the whole Village scene."

"I believe New York connotes the best of the best," he said, sounding downright boosterish. "There's a spirit here that's infectious. It's not really about replicating the Statue of Liberty at a third scale. It's the energy and vibe, the whole recipe rolled up into one big dessert. That's why it's such a great platform."

For his latest project, Mr. Advent is determined to build the kind of richly appointed, idiosyncratic structures found throughout Manhattan. Facades will be brick, and in some cases, detailing will be wrought iron. "Other developers keep saying: 'Your buildings aren't square. You've got a pie-shaped building. That's going to cost more,' " Mr. Advent said. "I'm going, yeah, it's a pie-shaped building. When you go to great cities, they build pie-shaped buildings."

Pie-shaped buildings notwithstanding, one questions whether it will be possible for East Village, Las Vegas, to instantly replicate the texture of a neighborhood that has developed over so many decades. According to Denise Scott Brown, an architect and urban planner who is a co-author of the architectural classic "Learning From Las Vegas," all new cities encounter this problem.

"But one thing Las Vegas would have that others might not is a whole lot of money," Ms. Scott Brown said. "With money, you can give a semblance of vitality. You can make it look as if it has a certain worn patina." Still, she said, "It's like putting a small child in some rather large shoes."

Mr. Advent, however, remains convinced that his neighborhood will be a success, so much so that he believes that even New Yorkers will respond to the ersatz version. "I know New Yorkers will want to hang out there," he said. As proof, he cited an attraction meant to remind them of their hometown, or at least to remind them of the tourists who visit their hometown. "We're even going to have the same horse-and-carriage experience as Central Park," he said.

[billyblancoNYC]

Disgraceful.

[pianoman11686]

I just spent a few days in Vegas last week. When I was there, I caught part of a special on CNBC about the ridiculous development there. It really is insane. Trump (the Donald, not Ivana) sold out his International Hotel and Tower, version 5.0 or whatever number it is, in less than a week. Over 1200 units, and they're not exactly cheap. Not only are housing developments consistently expanding the city's reach, but now there are really a lot of high rise projects, mostly condos, planned all along and around the strip. As for the lack of a place to "stroll around", it's nothing unusual. Almost every newer American city faces the same problems. It's all just shopping malls, of the strip or enclosed variety. And there are a lot. Caesars Palace recently finished its expansion of its Forum Shops. Over 150 stores, most of which look like they belong on Fifth Avenue, complete with restaurants, fountains, and blue sky. All indoors. I walked through it, and it seemed suspiciously like a place to "stroll around" in. And there were a lot of people. The stores are among the highest grossing per square foot in the country. There were also hoardes of people, all tourists, packed outside, in the heat, walking along other huge construction projects.

[pianoman11686]

Home on the Strip

By ROBERT JOHNSON

Published: August 17, 2005

LAS VEGAS - Even in this gaudy city a building painted black and pink stands out. It needs to, because the one-floor structure at the corner of the Strip and Sahara Avenue is a condominium sales center in a metropolis where more than 100 new high-rise residences are in the works.

The black-and-pink exterior was designed by the woman who is the namesake of the planned condominium. Victor Altomare, the developer, said simply, "It just screams 'Ivana.' " That would be Ivana Trump, an ex-wife of Donald J. Trump. "Her fingerprints are all over this project," Mr. Altomare said. "Pink is her color."

Although the condo itself, scheduled for groundbreaking in mid-2006 and opening 30 months later, will be a relatively sedate silver color, it will command attention as the tallest skyscraper in Las Vegas. Mr. Altomare estimates construction costs at $500 million. In a telephone interview, Mrs. Trump said she was an investor, but would not be specific about the amount.

The Ivana building "will be elegant," vowed Mrs. Trump, who divides most of her time among homes in New York, London and St.-Tropez. She has lines of clothing, cosmetics and jewelry that are sold on cable television shopping channels and over her Web site, IvanaTrump.com.

Ivana, the building, is to rise 80 floors. Its advertising slogan is "Size Does Matter," a phrase also used to promote the 1998 film "Godzilla," a big-budget production about the fire-breathing lizard that fizzled at the box office. In that movie, the monster destroyed much of Manhattan. In contrast, the Ivana tower and other high rises under development are being hailed as the "Manhattanization" of Las Vegas.

Konnel Peterson, a Re/Max broker who sells mainly condos, said: "Condos, not casinos, are the next big wave of building here. If successful, they'll remake the skyline of this city and recast the Strip from a place to gamble on games to a hub of real estate investment."

The Las Vegas condo market is heating up fast. Some 6,000 units are under construction, compared with about 300 in early 2004, according to Gunther Gedsl, a high-rise analyst at Manhattanization.com in Las Vegas. Another 12,500 units are in the preconstruction sales phase, he said, versus 4,000 as 2004 began.

All that activity, however, is taking its toll on the optimism among some developers. Mr. Gedsl estimated that 12,000 condo units had entered the "idea stage" within the last 18 months. But he added that there had been some erosion in the number of condos in the pipeline "as costs and competition have increased."

How close is Las Vegas to a condo glut? Mr. Gedsl said the glut might already exist. "I think at least 20 percent of those we're hearing about now won't be built," he said.

Mr. Altomare said he had to persuade Mrs. Trump to lend her name to the tower. "She said no, unless it has the right size and scope." He added, "One appeal for her in Las Vegas is to succeed in a 'guy's town.' "

Certainly the size and scope of Ivana, the building, are big enough to compete with one guy in particular: the man she divorced in 1990 after 13 years of marriage.

Mr. Trump, not known for self-deprecation, also has a condo project being built on the Strip. But, planned for 64 floors, his Trump International Hotel and Tower will be smaller than the one named for Mrs. Trump. Still, he swept aside comparisons in a telephone interview.

"Trump International has the right location in the heart of Las Vegas Boulevard," he said, referring to the street more commonly known as the Strip, "near Steve Wynn's new resort and all the glamour that buyers are looking for."

Mr. Trump said that Ivana, the building, may be too far north on the Strip, near the older downtown area of Las Vegas, to be successful. "It's in the wrong place," he said. His development has as a neighbor the Fashion Show Mall, with such stores as Neiman-Marcus. Hers is across the street from a discount store that offers bargains on T-shirts.

Ivana's prices range from $550,000 to a penthouse listed at $35 million. Trump International's units are $800,000 to $8 million.

"Trump International is sold out," Mr. Trump said. "We have 10 percent deposits on all 1,268 units." He added that if some buyers drop out, "We have a long waiting list of people who want to get in."

While the sales center at Ivana is bustling, and Mr. Altomare showed a stack of deposit checks to a visitor, they are for a modest $10,000 each, rather than the 10 percent of the sales price that Mr. Trump said he was receiving in advance.

Still, the Ivana condo was nearly 50 percent sold even before marketing fully started last Sunday with a party attended by Mrs. Trump at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, five miles south of her sales center.

Among those attending the gala was Alyssa Lampert Thomas, a Los Angeles mortgage consultant, who has made a deposit. "This is my first time in Las Vegas," she said, "and I'm really excited about owning a part of a building that Ivana Trump is involved with. She is helping with the design of the interiors, and she has exquisite taste."

One promotion for the building exhibits a certain earthy quality. A press release on July 31 proclaimed, "The Ivana standard of procuring 'only the best' is even reflected in the men that will actually build Ivana Las Vegas."

The announcement invited the wives, girlfriends and sisters of construction workers to submit "your sexiest construction photo" to www.ivanalasvegas.com, in a contest to pick the 12 "hottest construction men in America." They will be featured on a calendar for the tower.

While she was married to Donald Trump, Mrs. Trump was named vice president for interior design of his buildings, including Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, where she supervised construction and later managed the property. She also did a four-year stint as president and chief executive of another Trump property, the Plaza Hotel in New York.

In recent years she has been involved in real estate as a spokeswoman for condo projects in Australia and Miami, but the Las Vegas building is the first to bear her name. "She is definitely a brand, an icon known all over the world," Mr. Altomare said.

Yet brand names have sometimes not been enough in the Las Vegas condo market, where plans for a 46-story building backed by the basketball legend Michael Jordan were scrapped this year in part because of higher-than-expected construction costs.

And, Mr. Trump said, "I'm afraid she is just being used by people who want her name to get something built."

Mrs. Trump had this to say: "I'm glad that Donald is concerned. We're still family even though we're divorced. No one is using me for anything. I'm not the type of person who gets used."



Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[lofter1]

Mr. Trump is right -- for now anyway (things change fast in Vegas). The area where Ivana is putting up her tower is fairly low end -- the Stratosphere Casino across the Strip is like a shopping mall with bad Vegas decor (the big attraction there are the 4 thrill rides at the top the the Stratosphere tower).

Call me a pessimist but I believe that Vegas' time will pass very quickly. It is a singularly ugly city (while the desert surrounding Vegas itself is quite stunning). It has inadequate water for the way it is growing (despite what the mayor says). The traffic is fairly horrendous. And the economy is almost completely based on tourists with cash to spend. When the next economic downturn comes it will hit Vegas very, very hard. And all those folks buying these condos will be stuck with a view of the desert and not much more.

[BrooklynRider]

I was only out there once and I didn't enjoy it much. It is nothing in the middle of nowhere.

[lofter1]

Rising Stars on the Strip

About 8,000 condos are under construction in Las Vegas or about to start. But some worry about a real estate bubble bursting.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...ack=hppromobox

By Jerry Hirsch, Times Staff Writer
August 22, 2005

LAS VEGAS — The boom in high-rise condo projects in this city's canyon of casinos known as the Strip has spawned its own new status symbol — the celebrity resident.

About 8,000 condominium units are under construction or about to start, according to SalesTraq, a Las Vegas real estate information company. It's a building explosion fueled in part by speculators in the torrid real estate market here and the desire of buyers from California and Asia to own a piece of Sin City's action.

But like everything Vegas does, this building bonanza comes with an extra helping of glitz: Developers are using Hollywood stars to make their projects stand out from the more than 100 residential skyscrapers proposed for Las Vegas.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire have purchased units at the Panorama Towers complex. Jessica Simpson has reserved a unit at Palms Place, the 50-story high-rise planned at the Palms Hotel and Casino. Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson has snagged a spot at the Icon Las Vegas.

"I am sure these celebrities are getting very good deals," said Peter Dennehy, senior vice president of Sullivan Group Real Estate Advisors in San Diego. "It is a marketing thing. People want to live near the stars."

But some analysts wonder if the market will be left with a Las Vegas-sized hangover in the form of a real estate bubble fueled by the large number of speculators — estimated to be as high as 40% — who never intend to live in the units they are buying. The high-rise condo market has proved to be particularly sensitive to market gyrations, said Delores Conway, a USC real estate economist.

Las Vegas isn't the only town that is going vertical. High-rise living, a long-standing tradition in New York, has spread to the likes of Boston, Denver, Miami, San Francisco and Kansas City, Mo. At least half a dozen new condo towers are planned for Los Angeles, Irvine and Pasadena.

Nationally, the number of condominium and town home development construction starts jumped 38% to 120,000 last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And that came on top of a 23% gain in the previous year.

"Cities across the United States are booming with these projects and many of the developments are quite spectacular," said Max Neiman, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.

Many of the buildings are following the pattern of Miami, where residential towers offer luxury-hotel-style amenities such as concierge service, valet parking, restaurants, fitness centers and spas. Some developments are tailored to unique markets. Cristalla, a 22-story high-rise residential tower in downtown Seattle, will feature a rooftop dog park. Much of the demand "is coming from people who want to live in convenient urban settings, near bookstores, jazz clubs, theaters and good restaurants," Neiman said.

However, with so many high-end properties on the drawing board, it's easy for a development to get lost in the crowd. That's where the celebrities come in, assuming the real estate equivalent of a walk-on role: Most aren't investors in projects, but their presence gives condo buyers the hope of an occasional star sighting near the mailboxes.

Don't expect anything so crass as celebrity advertising endorsements; Vegas developers prefer the subtle approach, placing tidbits in gossip columns and prominently displaying celeb glamour shots in sales offices.

"It makes a building cool and hip," said Dennehy, the real estate consultant. "You always want to sell lifestyle when you are selling condo projects like these."

There are familiar names behind some projects, too. Donald Trump is building the Trump International Hotel & Tower at the north end of the Strip. And not to be outdone by her ex, Ivana Trump plans the eponymous Ivana Las Vegas 82-story development nearby.

Typically, high-rise condo buyers are empty nesters who no longer want to maintain a 2,500-square-foot home in the suburbs, said Ross DeVol, a Milken Institute economist.

"There are 80 million baby boomers, most in their 50s, and that's a big market," DeVol said.

Other buyers are young urban professionals without children who want to live in what they consider marquee areas, DeVol said.

Even in Las Vegas, once one of the more affordable real estate markets, no one considers these condos to be cheap housing.

A 972-square-foot one-bedroom unit at Icon Las Vegas, the future Reggie Jackson hangout that Related Cos. is building, starts north of $600,000.

"If one of these condos were in the $300,000s, I might do it. It would be nice to be just minutes from work," said Chris Dingell, a senior planner with Clark County. "But I can't afford what they are asking for the units on the Strip."

But for those with the money, the towers, with their luxury amenities and chic granite-and-wood fixtures, hold an allure even at prices that range from $500 to $1,000 a square foot.

"With the poker boom, I find myself spending at least three months a year in Vegas and we needed a home there," said Barry Greenstein, a Rancho Palos Verdes resident and professional poker player.

Greenstein paid $1.2 million for a 2,300-square-foot unit on the 16th floor of the first Panorama tower because of its proximity to the Bellagio, where he won $215,969 in a World Poker Tour no-limit Texas hold 'em event last year.

"Some of the other high-stakes players are moving into that building, so we will have a little community there," he said.

Although his job is unusual, Greenstein is typical of many who are plunking down 20% deposits for Las Vegas condo units. Few are eager to call the Strip their permanent home.

"I plan to go every couple of months. Although I am not a gambler, I enjoy the excitement of the city," said Doug McCafferty, a real estate broker who lives in Dana Point. He purchased a $346,500 studio unit at the Residences, a joint project between high-rise builder Turnberry Associates and MGM Mirage at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.

McCafferty bought into the project's first tower, which opens next year and sold out in just 90 days. The Residences has sold out a planned second tower and half the units in a third.

"There seems to be an insatiable demand for condominiums in Las Vegas right now and it hasn't slowed," said Marty Burger, who heads the Las Vegas operations for New York-based real estate developer Related Cos.

A veteran of 35 projects in greater Miami, Related quickly peddled all 248 units in its planned Icon tower between the Strip and the Los Vegas Convention Center. Business was so good that the company has launched a second tower and has sold all but 100 of its 268 units well before it will break ground.

Donald Trump's 1,283-unit condominium project sold out in just five days after it was announced in December.

Burger said that as much as 60% of the buyers at the Icon tower were Californians purchasing vacation homes. But he and other developers concede that a large percentage are real estate brokers and other speculators attempting to lock up positions with the expectation that they can resell at a profit.

Janine Hogg, a San Francisco Bay Area transplant who owns a smoothie shop in the Las Vegas suburb of Summerlin, has placed down payments on four condos in three projects and is considering purchasing a fifth.

"Real estate investments are my retirement strategy," Hogg said. "Hopefully I am not gauging the market wrong."

Las Vegas real estate analyst John Restrepo estimates that speculators such as Hogg make up as much as 40% of the market. This has prompted some of the projects to limit purchases to one per person and to require buyers to close escrow before allowing a unit to be resold.

The number of investors in the Las Vegas condo market should be a matter of concern to both developers and other buyers, said Conway of USC.

"Las Vegas prices are not going to go up forever," she said, "and when the market shifts, a percentage of speculators like that is enough to change the price of all the units in the building."

Speculators tend to liquidate their positions quickly if their investments are losing money or aren't producing the expected returns, Conway said, sending prices tumbling.

However, some real estate experts say the unique nature of the Las Vegas market helps insulate it from the type of steep downturn seen in other markets.

The city is running out of developable land, and people continue to pour into the region, said Steve Bottfeld, an analyst with the local research firm Marketing Solutions.

The Las Vegas metropolitan area had a population of 1 million in 1997 and that's expected to double by 2007, he said. That influx provides a steady supply of buyers, which is what the speculators are counting on.

Moreover, with 38 million visitors annually, the city remains one of the nation's top vacation destinations and will maintain its attraction for second-home buyers, Bottfeld said.

Finally, no one expects all the projects on the books to get built.

"There's not enough skilled labor in this town to build even half of what has been proposed," said Richard Lee, a vice president in the Las Vegas office of First American Title Co.

Even more circumspect is developer Irwin Molasky, whose Park Towers opened in 2001, demonstrating that Las Vegas was a prime market for luxury high-rise condos.

"I don't think more than 25% or 30% of the proposed projects will get built," he said. "Building these high-rises are not for the faint of heart."

Indeed, even star power won't guarantee every venture success. The proliferation of projects forced Chicago real estate developer Diversified Real Estate Concepts Inc. to scuttle plans for Aqua Blue, an 825-unit high-rise near the Strip, even though it had signed basketball superstar Michael Jordan to license an athletic center and two namesake restaurants.

[TallGuy]

"Call me a pessimist but I believe that Vegas' time will pass very quickly. It is a singularly ugly city (while the desert surrounding Vegas itself is quite stunning). It has inadequate water for the way it is growing (despite what the mayor says). The traffic is fairly horrendous. And the economy is almost completely based on tourists with cash to spend. When the next economic downturn comes it will hit Vegas very, very hard. And all those folks buying these condos will be stuck with a view of the desert and not much more."

Wrong! Vegas is quickly becoming a low-cost high tech manufacturing and design town. It is sucking much of what remains of the Southern California electronics industry out of that area and into Vegas, with its' low tax rate and cheap labor market. Behind the glitz and glamour of the touris industry is a startling boom of non-gaming related industry.