Fontainebleau
Las Vegas

ARCHITECT: Bergman, Walls & Associates
COST: $2.9 billion
ROOMS: 3,889-room hotel with 2,719 standard rooms, 152 suites and 1,018 condo-hotel units
CASINO FLOOR: 100,000 square feet
MEETING SPACE: 390,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor conference space
RETAIL SPACE: 300,000 square feet
AMENITIES: 60,000-square-foot spa, 3,200-seat performing arts theater, 24 restaurants and lounges

Expected to open in late 2009, Fontainebleau Resort and Casino seems to be flying under the radar when it comes to coverage of projects on the Strip.

But the $2.9 billion resort will kick off a string of openings in Las Vegas that will change the look of the Strip and usher in a new era of upscale mixed-use resorts.

Fontainebleau will feature a 100,000-square-foot casino, a 63-story hotel tower with 3,889 rooms, almost 400,000 square feet of meeting space, 300,000 square feet of retail space and a 60,000-square-foot spa. It is being built on 24.5 acres that was once the home of the Algiers and El Rancho casinos.

As with the Eastside Cannery, James Packer’s Crown has an interest in Fontainebleau. The Australian gaming mogul spent $250 million in April 2007 to acquire nearly 20 percent of the developing company Fontainebleau

The Las Vegas opening should build off the expected success of the fall 2008 opening of a non-gaming Fontainebleau Resort in Miami, Florida.