Fontainebleau, MSG Sphere openings to be biggest 2023 projects

If you thought 2022 rocked as a great year for gaming- and tourism-related construction projects, wait’ll you see what’s in store for 2023.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s tourism construction bulletin — listing what’s on the development horizon — shows $3.2 billion in projects coming online by the end of 2023 with 4,758 new hotel rooms and 581,000 square feet of new convention space. By comparison, the LVCVA estimated projects completed in 2022 to include 1,335 rooms and 225,000 square feet of convention space.

Next year’s construction timeline doesn’t include the newly revealed information that Fontainebleau Las Vegas received a $2.2 billion construction loan last week on top of owner Jeffrey Soffer’s $350 million repurchase of the Strip hotel-casino project.

Most of the LVCVA’s valuation can be attributed to the completion of the $2.2 billion MSG Sphere at The Venetian, expected to open in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The new hotel rooms and convention space is largely tied to the redevelopment of the Fontainebleau, which will have 3,700 rooms and 550,000 square feet of convention space.

The addition of 4,758 new rooms in 2023 will move the total inventory to 156,580 rooms, a 3.1 percent year-over-year increase.

Updates and additions

Several smaller projects are lined up for completion in 2023.

The privately held Silverton hotel-casino off Interstate 15 near Blue Diamond Road took 300 rooms offline for a remodeling project in 2022. Those 300 rooms will be back in Las Vegas’ inventory in early 2023.

A $30 million room renovation at Circus Circus is due to be completed in the spring.

Another project due for completion in the spring is an interior and exterior renovation of the Miracle Mile Shops, the 475,000-square-foot mall attached to Planet Hollywood Resort.

Several new non-gaming hotels will add to the city’s room inventory in April, May and September.

A Springfield Suites by Marriott at West Sunset Road and South Decatur Boulevard will open in April with 127 rooms. The Aloft Hotel, a Marriott International project at St. Rose Parkway and Coronado Drive, opens in May with 136 rooms.

Delta Hotels by Marriott is scheduled to open in September at 3883 W. Flamingo Road. It will have 284 hotel rooms and 10,000 square feet of convention and meeting space.

MGM Resorts International will also invest $63 million to renovate rooms at its New York-New York property on the Strip. That project is due for completion sometime in the summer.

Durango hotel project

One of the biggest resort openings of 2023 is scheduled to occur in the fourth quarter when Station Casinos’ Durango hotel-casino on Durango Boulevard off the 215 Beltway is projected to open. Parent company Red Rock Resorts projects a cost of $750 million and the resort will add 211 rooms to the local inventory and 21,000 square feet of meeting and convention space.

Fourth quarter openings also include the Fontainebleau and MSG Sphere at The Venetian. The Sphere, a 366-foot sphere-shaped building east of The Venetian Expo is a 17,500-seat entertainment arena that will have massive indoor and outdoor LED screens lighting up the Strip skyline.

Toward the end of the year, Golden Entertainment Inc. is expected to open its $70 million Atomic Range golf entertainment complex next door to The Strat.

Also, the Four Seasons Las Vegas, occupying some of the top floors of a Mandalay Bay tower, will wrap up its room renovations by the end of the year.

More coming in ‘24 and ‘25

Nearly twice as many new rooms are expected to be added in 2024 and 2025 with 11 new developments scheduled for completion.

Among the largest properties projected for 2024 is the 119-room Element Las Vegas and 322-room, $95 million AC Hotel by Marriott on Grand Central Parkway at Symphony Park.

Other projects targeted for completion in 2024 is the 90-room, $20 million Atwell Suites at The Pass in downtown Henderson; the 531-room, $550 million Dream Las Vegas resort near the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign; a 120-room Home2 Suites by Hilton on West Sunset Road; and the 720-room non-gaming Majestic Las Vegas on Convention Center Drive.

The 2024 calendar also promises to bring a $100 million renovation to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, a new $40 million pedestrian overpass on Las Vegas Boulevard at Sahara Avenue, and the completion of the 34-mile network of tunnels beneath the resort corridor for the underground transit system known as the Vegas Loop, being built by the Boring Co.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.