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Wednesday, January 05, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
THE FINAL FRONTIER
A Strip hotel could become another cityscape resort
By Len Butcher
Donrey Gaming Wire
New Frontier owner Phil Ruffin Tuesday said he plans to implode the Strip resort he bought two years ago to make way for a new San Francisco-themed resort.
The Wichita, Kan., businessman Tuesday said he hopes to implode the New Frontier -- which he purchased in February 1998 -- this summer and begin construction in the fall on a $700 million, 2,500-room hotel-casino. He expects the City By The Bay resort to be completed in September 2002.
"We won't build this in stages. Once it's fully completed, we'll open," Ruffin said.
Financing for the project, which will be owned solely by Ruffin, is expected to be completed "within three to four weeks." Ruffin said he expects to generate cash flow of more than $120 million annually.
The New Frontier is "doing fine, but the property is too valuable to be just doing fine," Ruffin said. "I always knew that long-term, the Frontier had to do something and to just pour money into it is probably not productive.
"It's unfortunate that we have to tear down the Frontier, and I hate to do it, but we just can't compete with what they're putting up today. I decided that as long as we have to do it, it might as well be sooner than later."
"But the location is superb, so if we can capitalize on that with the new resort, that's how you maximize the value of dirt. The Frontier is showing a nice, positive cash flow and we're up 30 to 40 percent over last year, but that's not great. We want something a little better."
Although a two-year period is a long time without any revenue, Ruffin says, "It really doesn't impact. I have 13 other hotels and we'll use cash flows from those properties to support the new project."
Plans for the new resort include re-creating Chinatown, the Coit Tower and Lombard Street in the California city. Visitors "will walk through a Chinese pagoda and on to the Golden Gate Bridge which will take you to Fisherman's Wharf. We're going to duplicate the wharf right down to the boats in the water," Ruffin said.
Ruffin said the resort will also have an Alcatraz restaurant and a Napa Valley winery.
There will be very little retail space in the new resort, thanks to an agreement between Ruffin and the Rouse Co., which owns the neighboring Fashion Show mall, to build a walkway connecting the mall to the resort.
Ruffin said the agreement with Fashion Show will allow Ruffin to use most of the 25 acres available for rooms and 120,000 square feet of casino space.
Ruffin says the 900 employees now working at the New Frontier will have "first crack at the jobs when we reopen, and I hope they all return and get the plum jobs." Altogether, the City By The Bay is expected to employ 3,000 people, he said.
Ruffin's plans for the resort were already making waves Tuesday.
Mark Advent, who owns Advent Communications and Entertainment and who created the concept for New York-New York, said he plans legal action to stop Ruffin's project.
Advent said he has been working with Ruffin for the past two years to create a San Francisco-themed megaresort.
Advent said he is "disappointed and saddened" by Ruffin's proposal. "I created the idea of a San Francisco theme specifically for a hotel and casino, after I created the concept for New York-New York Hotel & Casino. I shared my copyrighted detailed plans, designs, concepts and other proprietary information with Mr. Ruffin and Mr. (Craig) Dudley (Ruffin's agent) in good faith over the course of a two-year period."
Ruffin dismissed Advent's complaint Tuesday, saying that "city themes are in the public domain."
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Printable version of this story
New Frontier owner Phil Ruffin said Tuesday he will implode the Strip hotel this summer and begin development of a $700 million, 2,500-room San Francisco-themed resort. Similar in scope to New York-New York and Paris, Ruffin's City By The Bay would feature re-creations of famous landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz, Chinatown and Lombard Street.
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