Renderings of tallest Las Vegas Strip hotel emerge as approval steps near

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Renderings for what would be the Strip’s tallest hotel have emerged as developers seek approval to start building the project in early 2025.

Hotel structures in the renderings dwarf an 18,000-seat arena that is key to the project. Developers will use it to try to lure an NBA team to Las Vegas. Approval from the Federal Aviation Administration would be needed for the proposed height — 752 feet, 17 feet taller than neighboring Fontainebleau Las Vegas. The STRAT tower is 1,149 feet.

The renderings and accompanying architectural drawings from Steelman Partners show three hotel and condo towers, the arena, a 6,000-seat theater, a 120,000-square-foot convention area and floorplans for hotel floors for the three towers, including hotel rooms, villas, a sky lounge, and residences.

Tower designs include a surface described as “silver glass and gold glass on a curtain wall system.” Tower C near the southeast corner of the property has a unique shape with a curved exterior.

Developers are calling the project LVXP. It’s on the former site of Wet n Wild Water Park, south of SAHARA Las Vegas and north of Fontainebleau. Former UNLV basketball player Jackie Robinson was at the front of efforts to build an arena — “All NET Arena” — at the same site, but he failed to secure financing to build and the county shelved that plan late last year.

If it is approved, construction would start in early 2025 and finish sometime in 2029, according to developers’ plans.

A document filed with the Winchester Town Board, which will consider the project at a Nov. 12 meeting, shows that longtime Las Vegas hotel operators Paul and Sue Lowden are involved in the LVXP project as owners of the property through the Archon Corporation, which dates back to the Lowdens’ connection to the Sahara and the Wet n Wild property. The Lowdens’ company secured approval for the height of the structure during a previous attempt to build at the site, but it will have to receive new approval.

County staff have recommended approval for the project, which would go before the Clark County Commission if it receives the preliminary approval.

LVXP was initially announced on April 29, 2024, with a leadership team including James R Frasure, CEO, who brought years of experience with homebuilder D.R. Horton and Nick Tomasino, who was in charge of construction at Sphere. Paul Steelman handles the design work.

The project seeks waivers related to driveways on Las Vegas Boulevard South and Paradise Road.

The site has been vacant since Wet n Wild moved from the Strip location about two decades ago. One note in documents filed with the county hints at the site’s interesting history:

“Currently, the site is vacant. It was previously the site for Wet n Wild Water Park. It’s our understanding that part of the structures for Wet n wild are buried on site and will have to be excavated and removed.”

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