The Plaza's Vegas-fied Cousin Gets the Green Light

October 7, 2008 at 10:21 AM | by Jenna | 1 Comment

The Plaza -- yes, that Plaza -- has been under so much stress lately: the $400 million dollar renovation and shift toward a more residential focus was one thing, but now there are lawsuits flying around over the exorbitantly-priced condos that turned out to be a lil' crappy. Plus, you know, people are already selling their brand new Plaza digs or people aren't really buying those condos at all.

Naturally, the Plaza kinda took a strategic approach to coping with such stressful times: they're goin' to Vegas. Word.

El-Ad properties (the developers behind the storied Plaza in NYC) bought 36 acres on the Las Vegas Strip last year -- for $33 million an acre, by the way -- and have had plans to build a seven-tower, 6,700-unit hotel-casino version of the Plaza in New York.

Unfortunately, they hit a bit of a snag when Vegas' nearby lower-end Plaza Hotel and Casino tried to stop the Plaza -- the Plaza, hello -- from calling itself The Plaza when it hit Vegas.

But no such luck: after a three-week trial, a jury has greenlit El-Ad from putting the Plaza's name on a proposed $5 billion resort-casino project.

But don't get too excited. El-Ad has announced that they would delay construction at least until 2010 "because of financing difficulties." We hear the resort should open by 2012.

Also: doesn't building a big goofy Vegas-fied replica of The Plaza seem kind of like...a mockery of the elegance and beauty of the original?

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