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New Frontier Still Plans for San Francisco-Themed Megaresort

LAS VEGAS--New Frontier owner Phil Ruffin said he still hopes to find the funds necessary to build his planned San Francisco-themed megaresort on the site of his aging Strip casino.

But, while he waits, Ruffin's focusing on getting the Trump Tower Las Vegas condominium venture ready to begin preconstruction sales, hopefully by summer, the Kansas-based businessman said recently.

"Trump Tower Las Vegas is the easiest thing to get going in this economic environment," Ruffin said. "Once Trump Tower Las Vegas gets going, I think that will make the rest of our redevelopment easier."

One thing that's made redevelopment financing prospects a bit rosier is the ongoing construction of Steve Wynn's $2 billion Le Reve, across the Strip from the New Frontier and scheduled to open in the first half of 2005.

"We're certainly in better shape because of what Steve Wynn is doing," Ruffin said. "And (the expansion of) Fashion Show mall. But this is a tough environment, a tough economy, and financing's still tough. Even Steve needed a major investor, a guy willing to invest a couple of hundred million (Japanese businessman Kazuo Okada, chairman of gaming device maker Aruze Corp.). That's what we need."

But investors like Okada are hard to find, Ruffin admitted.

Ruffin and New York real estate developer Donald Trump announced plans in April to build the $390 million, 60-story condominium just off the Strip near Fashion Show mall.

The condominium would target ultra-high end buyers, with its 300 units averaging about $1.5 million each, and the 600-foot condominium would be the second tallest building in the city, behind the Stratosphere's 1,149-foot height.

Trump Tower would be just one component of the multiple-use plan Ruffin has for his New Frontier site.

A major U.S. hotel operator in April signed a letter of intent to build an $800 million hotel-casino on the northeast corner of Ruffin's New Frontier site, on the site of the now-demolished Silver Slipper casino.

The unnamed company's project would cost between $750 million and $800 million and would have 1,500 rooms.

And Ruffin has plans to build City by the Bay on the New Frontier parcel, a $1 billion San Francisco-themed megaresort, but the plans have been frustrated for almost three years by his inability to obtain financing.

"I still hope this year to find funding," Ruffin said. "Something may happen this year."

If built, Trump Tower Las Vegas would occupy a 3 -acre site less than a mile west of the Strip, east of Industrial Road. It would be east of MGM Mirage's corporate service center, behind the New Frontier and directly across from Nordstrom's at Fashion Show mall.

Building Trump Tower Las Vegas would take about 18 to 24 months.

Ruffin would contribute the condominium's land, preselling condominiums would generate capital, and the joint-venture would borrow additional funds to build the project.

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