FEATURE ARTICLE, MAY 2005

THE COSMOPOLITAN IN LAS VEGAS
3700 Associates will help turn Sin City into Spend City with a unique resort boasting standout retail and restaurants. 
Brian A. Lee

The Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino, a $1.5 billion development to be centrally located on the Las Vegas Strip, will offer a strong collection of prominently positioned retailers and restaurants. Developer 3700 Associates plans to break ground on the project this summer, with the grand opening slated for early 2008.

“I honestly believe that this retail and restaurant center has all of the attributes to be the most successful center, in terms of sales per square foot, in the world,” says Jim Reding, director of retail for developer 3700 Associates LLC.

The Cosmopolitan will consist of two 50-story glass towers totaling approximately 3,000 rooms, 2,000 of which will be “condo-hotel” offerings; 170,000 square feet of prime retail space, housing between 45 and 50 retail store, boutique and shop tenants; 130,000 square feet of restaurants and lounges; a 75,000-square-foot casino; 150,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space, and much more.

The Cosmopolitan’s uniqueness will be found both inside and out, but let’s start with location. It’s situated on the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue, the latter being a main thoroughfare for traffic coming from the airport. If the Strip is viewed in terms of a retail corridor with Wynn Las Vegas and The Venetian on the north end and Mandalay Bay on the south end, the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue is right in the middle. The resort’s next door neighbor to the north is the Bellagio, which, of course, boasts those amazing fountains, the No. 1 outside tourist attraction in Las Vegas according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. To the south, The Cosmopolitan will be connected by bridge to the MGM CityCenter, a Manhattan-esque development featuring 18 million square feet of hotels, condominiums and amenities that will mean an incredible influx of traffic for its neighbor.

Las Vegas Boulevard pedestrians and others will be coming to The Cosmopolitan to experience a dynamic mix of retail and restaurant offerings never before seen in Las Vegas. The configuration of retail and restaurants on the first three floors fronting the Strip was based on convenience for the consumers. “This whole idea of guests having to schlep through a casino, when they’re not ready to play, to get to the amenities is not the case at this property,” says Reding. “In fact, the casino is positioned [in back] as an anchor to the retail and restaurants. The restaurants are going to be all grouped together in one district on the third floor right over the Strip. People dining there are going to have spectacular views of the Bellagio’s fountains, the Eiffel Tower, Las Vegas Boulevard looking south, etc. Over the restaurants, about 90 feet above street level, is going to be a nightclub district, which will have incredible exposure to the Strip.”

The restaurants were deliberately placed in one area, again for convenience purposes. The nine to 11 restaurant tenants — “powerful names that have not been to Las Vegas yet” — will not only be attracted to the Cosmopolitan’s glass perimeter for the spectacular views their patrons will enjoy, but also because they’ll be able to put logos up allowing them to have their brands on the outside of the building.

“Another thing that differentiates this property is that it doesn’t have an overbearing specific theme,” continues Reding. “It’s not Rome or Venice or Paris or Arabia. It’s Cosmopolitan. Nobody has really put together a very cool and hip collection of retailers and restaurants. I think the reason for that is because most of those kinds of businesses need to be able to express themselves. They can’t conform to a theme that’s too heavy. They have to have a shell and a glass box where they can be whatever they want to be, whatever color, shape, feel. This is going to be the first property where you see a collection of retailers and restaurants rather than one envelope that has a certain theme.”

Slated to open in early 2008, The Cosmopolitan will be positioned to take advantage of Las Vegas’ burgeoning condo development trend as well. This new market direction means the influx of a whole new consumer segment to the city. “People are calling it the bringing of the cosmopolitan lifestyle to Las Vegas,” says Reding. “These amazing condominium projects coming to town are bringing a whole new high-end demographic. That is why this property is being designed to be completely accessible to drive-in traffic as well.”

The development will have two entrances — one on either side of the property — to the five-level, 3,800-space underground parking structure. “Following the same philosophy of giving pedestrians direct access into the retail and restaurant area of the property, if someone wants to toss their car keys to [a valet], they can and go straight up to their restaurant or store of choice,” says Reding.

The Cosmopolitan project came out of a unique partnership between Ian Bruce Eichner, noted developer of the Continuum luxury condo tower in Miami’s South Beach, and David Friedman, a casino expert whose latest project was The Venetian. The marriage of their different but dynamic backgrounds is manifested in the unique plans for The Cosmopolitan. Miami-based Arquitectonica and Friedmutter Group, based in Las Vegas, make up the architectural team while Terry Dougall and Paul Duesing are handling interior designs for the project.

According to Reding, the designs are to wow visitors and residents alike with a standout lineup of retail and restaurant offerings and a unique condo-hotel mix in an unprecedented arrangement, all catering to an evolving city.

“Even 15 years ago, nobody came to Las Vegas to shop,” he says. “Everybody came here to gamble. Now it’s falling to a very low percentage, the amount of tourists who come here primarily to gamble. They want to do everything else as well. It’s going to be a long time — long after MGM CityCenter, long after The Venetian’s expansion — when this market is saturated from a shopping and dining point of view.”

©2005 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.