George Clooney Making a Side Bet in Vegas

Clooney, nightclub owner Rande Gerber and two Las Vegas real estate companies today will announce plans to construct a casino, boutique hotel and sprawling condominium project on Harmon Avenue, just blocks from the Strip, in an area that has become one of the town's hottest development corners.

This won't be a resort for the tank top, shorts and fanny-pack crowd that plies the sidewalks of Las Vegas Boulevard to gape at the volcano, pirate ships and lions that are used to lure visitors to the Strip casinos, the actor said.

"We have this romantic notion of a place where you put on a jacket or a dress to go to dinner," said Clooney, 44. "We will have some sort of dress code so that it will feel like you are walking into a more formal Las Vegas of a different age or a classic Monte Carlo casino."

Although Clooney will be working with joint-venture partners Related Las Vegas and Centra Properties, both experienced developers, he acknowledged that he had no true expertise in developing sophisticated hotels. But the actor noted that over the years he had stayed in some posh properties and that he owned a villa on Lake Como in Italy.

"I may be the novice of this group," Clooney said, "but I have a good idea of what I like in Las Vegas, and it is all about class."

The 300-room hotel will be the centerpiece of a $3-billion, 25-acre project on Harmon Avenue just west of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The Spanish-themed Las Ramblas development will take shape on a section of Harmon that is about to be transformed by massive investment in high-profile projects.

Last week, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. and developer Edge Resorts announced plans to build a $1.7-billion hotel and condominium complex on a 21-acre Harmon parcel just west of Las Ramblas. To the east, Hard Rock plans $1.2 billion of construction, including 800 condominium-hotel units, 400 residential units, dozens of bungalows, restaurants and shops.

Nearby on Harmon, MGM Mirage and Turnberry Associates are in the middle of a $1-billion venture building 1,727 condo-hotel units. And where Harmon intersects the Strip, MGM Mirage plans its $4.7-billion Project CityCenter, with a 4,000-room casino-resort, three smaller hotels, a 550,000-square-foot shopping complex and 1,650 condo units.