Stalled Dream Las Vegas Resort Project Renews Building Permits

The Dream Las Vegas project could soon awaken from its coma if an extension application recently filed for its building permits is any indication.

Construction on Dream Las Vegas, a boutique casino hotel planned for the Strip’s southernmost end, is shown last year. (Image: Scott Roeben/Vital Vegas)

Construction of the casino resort on the southernmost tip of the Strip stalled in March, with its developers reportedly owing between $25M and $30M. According to the new documents filed with Clark County, and first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, it could restart at the beginning of 2024.

The Dream Hotel Group released this rendering in 2020. (Image: Dream Hotel Group)

One of those documents, a justification letter for the extension written on Oct. 4 by the developer’s attorneys, promised that the financing issues delaying the project were “being sorted out,” according to the newspaper.

Specifically, a bridge loan is expected to close by early November, followed by “the close of the full capital stack (equity and debt) by December 2023.”

At the time construction stopped, developer Bill Shopoff, president and CEO of Shopoff Realty Investments, told the R-J he expected to strike a new financing deal “in the next couple of weeks.”

What Dream is Made of

In February 2020, Shopoff and Contour, a privately owned commercial real estate development group, announced that they had purchased 5.25 acres of undeveloped Las Vegas Boulevard land next to Harry Reid International Airport.

Dream Hotel Group, a New York City-based operator of four Manhattan luxury properties and hotels in Miami Beach, Hollywood, and Nashville, signed on to run the planned 21-story luxury hotel.

It would include 531 guestrooms, seven dining and nightlife venues — one being a rooftop pool deck — a 12,000 square-foot convention center, spa, and a small casino floor. After being delayed by the pandemic shutdown, the casino hotel broke ground on July 8, 2022.

Dream Las Vegas was originally estimated to cost $300M to complete, but that estimate eventually doubled to $550M-$575M. Shopoff told the R-J last year that he blamed inflation, combined with the interest hikes on borrowing imposed last year by the Federal Reserve to control it.

Dream Hotel Group was acquired by Hyatt Hotels Corp. in February 2023. The corporation reportedly paid a base price of $125M, with an additional $175M due over the next six years “as properties come into the pipeline and open.”

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Jackpot: Las Vegas Player Wins $12.1M on Megabucks Slot

A mystery player hit it big last week at the Excalibur Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The exact payout was $12,185,766.

The Excalibur Hotel & Casino
The Excalibur Hotel & Casino, pictured above. A player at the property won over $12M. (Image: Oyster.com)

The massive jackpot was won on Wednesday on a Megabucks Spitfire Multipliers Triple Red Hot 7s game, according to IGT Gaming.

No details on the win were available. No word either on how the lucky winner will spend the cash.

The win marks the fourth time this year a Megabucks machine paid out over $1M. It also was the second-largest Megabucks win in Nevada so far in 2023.

In addition, it was the third million-dollar jackpot in the Las Vegas Valley, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Bingo Win

A Las Vegas local won over $91K on Thursday during a bingo game.

Charmaine Maillet won the jackpot at the Rampart Casino.

She was playing dual action bingo and played 34 numbers before the payout.

The total win was $91,069.

The Rampart Casino is located in the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa.

Santa Fe Station Payout

An unnamed out-of-town player won over $101K at Santa Fe Station Hotel & Casino on October 13.

The money was won on a Dancing Drums machine at the Station Casinos property.

The exact payout was $101,023.40.

$355K Won on Slot

A $355K jackpot was won at the South Point Hotel Casino & Spa this month.

The win was revealed by the casino on its X account on October 9.

The $355,857.91 was paid out on a Lightning Buffalo Link slot machine.

The winner was identified simply as
“Jessie.”

No other information was immediately available.

Jackpot in Mississippi

The Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Miss. paid out more than $105K over the weekend.

A player, identified as “Misty W.” from Arkansas, won the jackpot.

She was playing a 10-cent Bao Zhu Zhao Fu Red Festival machine.

The exact payout was $105,694.18.

Caesars Palace $1.1M Payout

An unnamed player recently won $1.1M on a slot machine at Caesars Palace Las Vegas.

The money was paid out on September 30 on a Dragon Link slot machine.

The exact win was $1,185,600.

Details weren’t available. Nor was how the winner will spend the money.

Linq Player Gets $264K

A mystery player won $264,697 at the Linq Hotel + Experience in Las Vegas on September 30.

The win was with a royal flush. It was also a mega progressive jackpot.

Race Car Driver Win

And as reported this week, race car driver Christy Georges-Barnett won $1.184 million at Caesars Palace Las Vegas.

It was paid out on a slot machine.

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Adele Extends Las Vegas Residency with 32 New Dates

What makes tons of money in Vegas gets extended.

Adele
Adele reportedly earned $2 million every time she took the stage during her 2023 residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. (Image: Getty)

Like U2 earlier this week, Adele announced on Friday the extension of her tremendously successful “Weekends with Adele” residency at Caesars Palace into 2024.

Let’s go one last time before I turn into a showgirl forever!” the British superstar tweeted. “This residency, these shows have changed my life. I desperately needed to fall back in love with performing live again, and I have. I needed to reconnect with my songs and remember what they mean to me, and I have!”

Adele’s next batch of 32 shows will take place on:

  • January 19, 20, 26, and 27
  • February 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, and 24
  • March 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, and 30
  • May 17, 18, 24, 25, and 31, and
  • June 1, 7, 8, 14, and 15

“Being on stage over the last year so up close and personal with an audience again after all these years has been a truly extraordinary restorative experience that I’ll never forget,” Adele continued. “All the hilarious, soulful, wild, and heartbreaking interactions we’ve had are banked in my mind for life. The looks on your faces, seeing you laugh and cry together singing your hearts out and hoarding bags of confetti.”

The singer closed by writing: “It’s humanized everything I thought was scary. Mostly though — it’s just made me realize how much I really enjoy being on stage, that I’m bloody good at it, and that it is 100% where I belong!”

Adele closes her current run of dates on November 4, though the tickets people bought for that night are no longer as special as they thought they’d be.

Fans are encouraged to register here for tickets now to help reduce the chances of scalpers and bots buying them up. Registration runs through Monday, October 23, at 10 p.m. PT.

Randomly selected fans will receive a code that will allow them to purchase tickets on Thursday, October 26, when tickets go on sale to the public.

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Las Vegas Culinary Union to Picket Caesars, MGM Casinos This Week

Culinary Local 226, the union representing 53,000 hospitality workers in Las Vegas, has inched closer to a possible Strip-choking strike. On Monday, it called for thousands to picket in front of eight casino resorts to pressure their owners to negotiate a deal for a new five-year contract.

The two-hour “informational” picket lines are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 12 in front of Park MGM, Paris Las Vegas, and The Linq. Picketers are then expected to fan out to the sidewalks in front of Harrah’s, Flamingo, Horseshoe, Planet Hollywood, and New York-New York.

The last time the Culinary Union went on strike in Las Vegas was in 1984. (Image: Courtesy Culinary Union Local 226)

Instead of walking off the job, workers will join the picket lines before or after their shifts, according to a media release from Local 226, which asks all members of the public to “stand in solidarity with workers by not eating, meeting, or staying in a casino resort during an active picket line.”

The last time Culinary went on strike was in 1984. More than 17,000 union workers walked off the job alongside three other unions in what Local 226 called “one of the largest strikes in Las Vegas history.” Workers picketed for 67 days.

‘Disappointing’ Negotiations

Negotiations are ongoing between the union and the three largest Strip employers — MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, and Wynn Resorts. However, Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of the union, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday that the progress made so far is “very disappointing.”

No strike deadline has yet been set. However, late last month, the unions announced that 95% of its Las Vegas restaurant and hotel workers voted to authorize a strike as their contracts expired. About 40,000 union members now work under expired contracts, according to the union, and they would be the first picket if a strike were called.

“There is now an active labor dispute with 18 casino properties across the Las Vegas Strip,” the union’s press release said, indicating that it can call a strike at “any date or time.”

The union is singling out MGM and Caesars properties first because it demands new language in its contracts’ no-strike clauses that allows the union to strike against non-union restaurants on union properties. This is not an issue at Wynn.

Other key proposals include substantial wage and benefit increases, expanded safety and technology language, and reduced workload for guest room attendants.

 

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VEGAS MUSIC ROUNDUP: Santana Extended Instead of Canceled, Sphere Phishing

MGM Resorts International has extended Carlos Santana’s “Supernatural” residency at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay.

The 15 new dates are: Jan. 24, 26, 28, and 31; Feb. 2-4; and May 10, 11, 15, 16, 18, 19, 22, and 23. Tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, via Ticketmaster.

Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana performs on May 7 in The Woodlands, Texas. (Image: nbcnews.com)

The extension comes in spite of the anger the guitar legend stoked by uttering anti-trans comments during a concert over the summer.

“When God made you and me, before we came out of the womb, you know who you are and what you are,” the 76-year-old rocker told the crowd at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino’s Etess Arena in Atlantic City.

Santana added: “Later on, when you grow up, and you see things and you start believing that you could be something that sounds good but you know it ain’t right, because a woman is a woman and a man is a man — and that’s it.”

A joint response from San Francisco Pride executive director Suzanna Ford and president Nguyen Pham read: “The fact that (Santana) used his incredible platform, onstage, to spew hate underscores the gravity of perpetuating misinformation in a society where gender’s spectrum is well-established.”

Santana posted an apology on his Facebook page a day after video of his comments made the rounds on social media, stating that his comments “don’t reflect that I want to honor and respect all person’s (sic) ideals and beliefs.”

However, another day after that, he deleted his apology.

Phish
Phish is hotly tipped for a future Sphere residency. (Image: Phish)

Go Phish

According to reports, Phish is the second frontrunner — after the Eagles — for a future Sphere residency. The jam band recently wrapped a run at New York’s Madison Square Garden — which, like the Sphere, is owned by MSG Entertainment. And Phish singer Trey Anastasio was the first to test out the Sphere’s immersive audio system, for an acoustic solo show he performed at New York’s Beacon Theatre in August 2022.

Strait to Allegiant

Country music superstar George Strait will serenade Allegiant Stadium on Dec. 7, 2024. Tickets for the show go on sale to the public Friday, Sept. 22 at 10 a.m. PT.

Carrie Underwood has added 18 2024 concerts to her “Reflection” residency at Resorts World Theatre. They are March 6, 8, 9, 13, 15, and 16; May 22, 25, 26, 29, and 31; June 1; and Aug. 14, 16, 17, 21, 23, and 24. Tickets and a limited number of VIP packages are on sale now through AXS.com/carrieinvegas.

Wynn Nightlife’s “Ultimate Race Week” series — running during the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix — will bring Marshmello to XS Nightclub on Nov. 15. The Chainsmokers are next on Nov. 16, then Swedish House Mafia on Nov. 17, and Calvin Harris (with late-night sets by Diplo and Dom Dolla) on Nov. 18. RÜFÜS DU SOL and Black Coffee close out the weekend on Nov. 19.

For more information, visit wynnnightlife.com.

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