Fontainebleau Las Vegas Opens After 14-Year Delay, Completing One of the Strip's Most Anticipated Resorts
Fontainebleau Las Vegas opened on December 13, 2023, completing a luxury casino resort that had stood as an unfinished shell on the north Las Vegas Strip for 14 years after the original developer's bankruptcy during the 2008-09 financial crisis.
Key Takeaways
- Fontainebleau Las Vegas opened December 13, 2023 — 14 years after the original project stalled
- The property is a 67-story, 3,644-room luxury resort at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip
- Developer Jeff Soffer's Fontainebleau Development completed the project after acquiring the unfinished structure
- Fontainebleau Las Vegas features a large casino floor, luxury hotel accommodation, dining, entertainment, and meeting facilities
- The opening was one of the most significant new Las Vegas Strip additions since Resorts World opened in 2021
- The original Fontainebleau project began construction in 2007 and halted in 2009 when the developer filed for bankruptcy
Why It Matters — Players
Why It Matters — Operators
Fontainebleau Las Vegas opened its doors to the public on December 13, 2023, marking the completion of one of the most troubled and anticipated casino resort projects in Las Vegas history. The 67-story property at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip had stood as an unfinished concrete shell for over a decade after the original developer, Fontainebleau Resorts, filed for bankruptcy in June 2009 — a casualty of the 2008 financial crisis that struck just as Las Vegas's casino construction boom was ending.
A Troubled History
Construction on the original Fontainebleau Las Vegas began in 2007 with a planned opening in 2009. The project, which drew on the legacy of the iconic Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel, was designed to be one of the most ambitious casino resort openings on the Strip. When the financial crisis hit, the developer was unable to secure the financing needed to complete construction. The bankruptcy filing in June 2009 left the half-finished 67-story tower as a visible symbol of the real estate and casino development excesses of the mid-2000s.
Over the following years, the property changed hands multiple times. Carl Icahn purchased the unfinished structure out of bankruptcy in 2010 for a fraction of its construction cost. The property was subsequently sold again before Jeff Soffer — the Miami Beach real estate developer associated with the Fontainebleau Miami Beach property — acquired it with the intention of finally completing the resort.
The Completed Resort
The finished Fontainebleau Las Vegas is a 67-story luxury tower with 3,644 hotel rooms and suites. The property includes an extensive casino floor, a large selection of dining and bar concepts, entertainment venues, convention and meeting space, and the amenities expected of a luxury Las Vegas Strip resort. The Fontainebleau brand, associated with the famous Miami Beach property, provided a distinctive identity for the completed resort.
The December 2023 opening added significant room inventory to the north Las Vegas Strip — an area that had been somewhat separated from the main concentration of Strip properties but was increasingly integrated as the convention and entertainment district expanded northward from the Wynn/Encore corridor.
Context: Las Vegas Strip Development
Fontainebleau's opening followed Resorts World Las Vegas (2021) as the second major new casino resort to open on the Strip in years. Together, these openings reflected Las Vegas's continued ability to absorb new resort capacity and the ongoing investment appetite of major developers in the Las Vegas market.
- Source:
- CDC Gaming Reports
- Published:
- December 13, 2023
- Original Article:
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