Strange similarities between Fontainebleau and Vegas casinos of the past
There are some interesting and eerie similarities between the new Fontainebleau's rocky origin story and another Las Vegas casino resort that opened a block away 54 years ago.
Large Orders
In 1960, Kansas City developer Frank Caroll purchased several vacant lots east of the Las Vegas Strip across from the newly opened Las Vegas Convention Center. He plans to build his own version of the Hollywood Landmark Hotel.
"I had to have something different," Carroll told the Las Vegas Sun-Journal in 1979. “I don’t like building boxes for hotels.”
Carroll hired local civil engineer Clarence Stringer, who came up with the idea of a saucer tower.
According to Marc Wagner's meticulously researched 2018 book "Above Them All: The Story of the Landmark Hotel & Casino," Carroll has consistently denied Stringer's The idea was inspired by the most iconic building on the Seattle skyline, with the building setting the milestone when it was completed just one month after groundbreaking was laid.
While nearly every casino-hotel story online mentions the landmark taking design inspiration from the Space Needle, there's no real evidence to support or refute this.
Carroll began construction on the landmark building on September 6, 1961, with an opening scheduled for early 1963. But in February 1963, financing problems brought his crane to a halt. The $3 million Carroll borrowed from the Appliance Buyers Credit Corporation (ABCC), a subsidiary of RCA-Whirlpool, completely disappeared. Not only did ABCC refuse to renew the loan, it also claimed that Carroll was in default on repayments.
In three years, the completed building—80 percent complete—will remain Nevada’s tallest building and largest eyesore.
Does this sound familiar?
In 1966, the Teamsters Pension Fund provided a $5.5 million construction loan to complete the landmark building. Ownership was transferred to a group of investors that also included Carol and his wife. Construction resumed in September of that year, with a new planned completion date of early 1967.
On April 5, 1968, the landmark was declared complete and the media was invited to visit. However, during the event, Carroll physically assaulted the estate's interior designer, Leonard England, and accused him of flirting with his wife.
Carroll was arrested two weeks later in connection with the incident. Three weeks later, he withdrew his application for a gambling license and put the landmark building up for sale.
In May 1968, the Teamsters Pension Fund filed a notice of breach of trust deed, claiming that no loan payments had been received since October 1967.
On August 29, 1968, The Landmark filed for bankruptcy.
Blue is also red
Construction on the Fontainebleau Las Vegas began in 2007 on the site of the original Thunderbird Hotel and Casino in 1948. The owners, led by Jeffrey Soffer, plan to open it in October 2009 as a sister property to the Miami resort.
But the Great Recession had other plans. The resort's 68-story tower was completed in 2007, and a year later, lenders Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, alarmed by the economic outlook, canceled $770 million in financing and the $2.8 billion project went bankrupt.
For most of 2009 to 2017, the building was only 70 percent complete, becoming an unwelcome and humiliating monument to economic devastation.
Yes, definitely looks familiar
As billionaires often do, billionaire investor Carl Icahn saw economic hardship as economic opportunity. He bought the building for $150 million at a bankruptcy auction in 2010 and did nothing for seven years. In 2017, he sold it to real estate developer Steven Witkoff and an investment firm called New Valley for $600 million, four times what he paid.
Witkoff began renovating the unfinished casino resort and renamed it The Drew Las Vegas in honor of his son, Andrew Witkoff, who died of a drug overdose in 2011.
In March 2020, construction was halted again as the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses in Las Vegas to close. At the time, Witkoff was on the verge of securing a $2 billion construction loan that never materialized.
There is also a parallel happy ending
Howard Hughes became the landmark's savior. He purchased the vacant property on Oct. 23, 1968, for $17.3 million, which included an $8.9 million debt to the Teamsters Association. It was the sixth and final Vegas casino purchased by the eccentric billionaire during the 1966 massacre that began at the Desert Inn.
Hughes spent another $3 million to have it completed to his specifications.
The Landmark opened on July 1, 1969 and remained in business until 1990 before going bankrupt in 1985 and never recovering. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority purchased the property in September 1993 for $15 million and demolished it in 1995 to add a 2K parking lot to its convention center, now the center's West End hall.
The landmark implosion footage is part of pop culture history as it was filmed by director Tim Burton and included in his 1996 film Mars Attacks.
The happy ending of the Fontainebleau is even more heartwarming because its savior is its original owner. In a stunning turn of events, the project was reacquired in 2021 by Soffer through his company Fontainebleau Development in partnership with Koch Real Estate Investments for $650 million. They agreed to assume Witkoff's debt to avoid foreclosure, and the project resumed its original construction plan.
Fontainebleau Las Vegas opens to the public on December 14, 2023 at 12:01 p.m.
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Source: www.casino.org
