Developers of the 41-story Allure luxury condominium tower plan to build a second, substantially taller tower on the 5-acre site on Sahara Avenue, one block west of the Strip.

It will have a mix of 350 to 400 condo-hotel rooms with multimillion-dollar penthouses on the top floor, a rooftop nightclub, a restaurant and resort-style spa, land partner Andrew Fonfa said Monday at a topping-off ceremony for the $150 million Allure.

"When I bought this property 21 years ago, I truly envisioned a project of this magnitude," he said.

Fonfa said he's talking with architects, general contractors and several financial institutions that are interested in being part of the Allure condo-hotel development team, which is led by Chicago-based Fifield Cos. Bovis Lend Lease is general contractor for the first tower and Union Labor Life Insurance Co. is the primary lender.

Construction schedule and unit pricing for the condo-hotel have not been determined. Estimated construction cost is $300 million to $400 million, Fonfa said.

Steve Fifield remembers being met with skepticism from many people in the real estate community when he announced the Allure project in January 2005.

"Mayor (Oscar) Goodman asked if I'd get it built. We got it built on time and on budget, which you can't say about a lot of other projects," Fifield said. "We've had 30 years of experience in building these properties. We also don't like following the crowd."

He pointed to high-rise development around Allure, such as Turnberry Place, Sky Las Vegas and Trump International, as an indication of what's happening on the north Strip and the movement toward downtown Las Vegas. He also held up a copy of USA Today that said developers are running out of land to build in Las Vegas, a story that has been reported locally for a number of years.

"It's been boom, bust, boom," Fifield said. "In 2005, we were in a boom period with presales. It was too good to be true. Now we're reporting a slowdown in sales and traffic. We all jump on the bandwagon and say it's a bust. Public home builders are unloading land. They've got an unsold inventory of homes. Las Vegas does have an overhang of housing, but that overhang is coming down quickly. There's only 280 (high-rise) units available for sale, so I think we're at the end of the bust."

Research firm Applied Analysis reported 95,647 existing or planned luxury condo units in Las Vegas as of October, including 1,152 existing units on the Strip and 4,795 under construction.

"It's Darwinist times," said Richard Worthington, president of Molasky Group, developer of Park Towers at Hughes Center. "Only the well-positioned, well-located, well-capitalized are going to be successful in the near term."

Fonfa said the local market, along with the success of the 428-unit first phase at Allure, influenced his decision to increase the size and scope of the second phase. Studio units were originally priced from the $200,000s at Allure. Prices now start in the $600,000s.

"The hard thing about condo-hotel is it doesn't pencil out from an investment standpoint," Applied Analysis principal Jeremy Aguero said. "It's problematic from the consumer side. We've heard some buyers grumbling about the money they're getting back (on condo-hotel rentals)."

The Residences at MGM, a joint venture between Florida-based Turnberry Associates and MGM-Mirage, was the first condo-hotel to open on the Strip, followed by the Platinum on Flamingo Road.

The second 40-story tower at The Residences is now complete and the third and final tower has topped off construction, with completion slated for mid-2007. Each tower will be connected to MGM Grand through an enclosed moving walkway, allowing easy access to the hotel's amenities.

Sales have been on the fast track since they began in January 2004, Turnberry sales and marketing director Dan Riordan said. About 90 of the 1,727 units remain for sale, priced from $650,000 to more than $2.5 million. The property has been renamed The Signature at MGM Grand.