Adelson breaks ground on Venetian

      Businessman Sheldon Adelson broke ground Monday for his $1.8 billion megaresort -- The Venetian -- at the site of the demolished Sands in a morning ceremony that was closed to all but a handful of guests.
      Adelson downplayed the low-key nature of the event, saying it was held to show potential retail and restaurant tenants that the 6,600-suite project is moving ahead.
      "What we say is what we intend to do," Adelson said. "Everything is secured. The project is moving forward as financed."
      The private gathering occurred amid an ongoing effort by labor organizers to halt the project amid fears that Adelson will build a nonunion resort.
      "It's interesting that all of a sudden they've become such community-minded activists," Adelson said. "It's a terrorism campaign by the union attempting to force unionization."
      Organizers from Culinary Local 226 have seized upon a county-mandated study of traffic patterns near the project to demonstrate that The Venetian would have a negative effect on the area dominated by the Las Vegas Boulevard-Sands Avenue intersection.
      The company-financed study is nearing completion and awaiting approval by Clark County officials, who last month rejected an earlier version of the report as inadequate.
      "I can't guess what we might have done had we known," said Jim Arnold, secretary-treasurer of Culinary Local 226, speaking of the groundbreaking. "But I don't think they wanted to bring attention to the project. I think there are still too many unanswered questions, like the traffic study."
      Adelson and his wife, Miriam, were joined Monday by friends and company executives as they took turns flipping soil with 10 shovels that were adorned with red ribbons.
      The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by 1999 with a second phase ending in 2000.
      Adelson, who founded the Comdex computer show and sold it for $800 million in 1995, is a legendary micromanager and directed a photographer who shot the groundbreaking for posterity.
      "The sun is in everybody's eyes," Adelson said. "Why don't you say something before you take (pictures)?"
      Adelson said financing is in place for the resort, which will be based on a mix of bank loans, bonded debt and his personal wealth, which is estimated at $500 million by Forbes magazine. The bonds will be at the "higher end of high yield" on the border of investment grade, he said.
      The Venice-themed resort would include a 200,000-square-foot casino, a Venetian-style canal, Roman architecture and 700-square-foot suites that would cost an average of $186 nightly.
      "The concept is to create a place where people won't want to leave, that everything people come to Las Vegas for will be here," Adelson said.
      An estimated 50 percent of The Venetian's hotel rooms are expected to be filled by conventioneers from Adelson's neighboring Sands convention center. The remaining 50 percent would be split among casino gamblers and drop-in visitors.
      "We think that we'll have the best rooms in the city with an average of 700 square feet per room," Adelson said.
      Union officials are employing traffic issues in their attack on Adelson, with whom they have been squabbling since he closed the Sands in June and indicated his new resort would not be union-staffed.
      "I'm on the record," he said Monday. "I'll let my employees decide if they want the union, but I'm not going to be intimidated by the union.
      "Why don't they lobby against the convention centers instead? Nothing brings more traffic to town than the convention center. Why don't we close down the convention center and we'll eliminate some of the traffic. ... In fact why don't we close down all of the hotels? Then, when we've closed down all of the hotels, all of the restaurants, we won't have any traffic."
      In March, the traffic study commissioned by Adelson's company, Las Vegas Sands Inc., was rejected by Clark County commissioners, who want to see a more detailed proposal for dealing with the increased traffic on Koval Lane.
      The main issue to be resolved is a shared driveway with Harrah's, said John Toth, chief of development services for Clark County. The current traffic study was written under the assumption that the driveway would be built and didn't provide specifics. The county wants to make sure it's more than an assumption.
      The project has three points of entry with stop lights to the Venetian, but Toth said that without the driveway, there would be only two. The resulting congestion would be significant -- the study predicts 60,545 cars per day will be using Koval Lane once the Venetian opens. The street now serves about 33,047 daily.
      Paul Larsen, attorney for the Sands, said the corporation signed a pre-development agreement with the county this month and is working with neighboring properties on rights of way. If consensus can't be reached, the Sands will have to do another study.
      The predevelopment agreement does accelerate construction on The Venetian, but Toth said an approved traffic study is still necessary.
      "They can grade the site and build the foundations," Toth said. "But the traffic study is never waived as a requirement. It's just postponed until a later date."