Although it was generally expected that the Wynn Las Vegas would sit and hold the land from its recent center-Strip purchase, just before the sexual assault scandal, Steve Wynn said he’s forming immediate plans to build a 2,000- to 3,000-room hotel tower on the property.
Few details have been revealed about the Wynn West — name that reflects the project’s location on the west side of the strip — except that a 100-foot-long hallway will run over the strip and connect it to Wynn’s Paradise Park resort that’s just beginning construction.
Wynn told investors he built the infrastructure outside the Encore Beach Club, knowing that he’d acquire the vacant lot across the street and that the Wynn West would open within three years.
Wynn already started work on the new $1.5 billion Wynn Paradise Park, taking over the golf course. The Country Club at the rear of the resort closed on Jan. 14 to make way for a 47-story, 1,500-room hotel that sits between the Wynn and Encore towers. A boardwalk, white sand beaches, restaurants, and a convention center are all part of the plans that surround a 1,600-foot-long lagoon.
However, with the allegations, the future of the new development is at risk: would anyone else but Steve Wynn be willing, or able to make this very risky investment? The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Steve Wynn paid $7.5 million in 2005 to settle a claim by a former manicurist at the company that he pressured her into having sex with him. Other former employees claimed Wynn coerced them into performing sex acts for $1,000 tips in a hotel spa and in his office.
