As Las Vegas pushes skyward, the new $1.5 billion Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino pushes to "the Boulevard." By placing retail at its front door, this luxury, mixed-use high-rise creates a stunning architectural design that boldly addresses an emerging trend in Las Vegas -- where a tourist's primary vacation purpose is shopping, dining and entertainment.
Scheduled to break ground in Summer 2005, The Cosmopolitan's focus on retail stems from the developer's Manhattan and Miami roots, where retail opens onto Park Avenue or Ocean Drive with transparent "floor-to-ceiling" window displays that capture the attention of tourists and visitors alike. To date, no other resort has integrated retail and dining in such a manner.
"Unlike Las Vegas' traditional property design, we're placing retail at the front door," said Ian Bruce Eichner, CEO of 3700 Associates, LLC, the developer of The Cosmopolitan. "The nature of The Cosmopolitan's design places shopping and dining at the threshold of our property. This new Las Vegas paradigm allows restaurants and shops direct exposure to Las Vegas Boulevard to brand their product to the millions of people that travel along the Strip," Eichner said.
Centrally located at the heart of Las Vegas Boulevard, next to Bellagio, The Cosmopolitan is a modern yet visionary mixed-use development that encapsulates luxury and sophistication in its integration of a condo-hotel-resort featuring hotel rooms, condo-hotel residences, a casino, retail, dining and entertainment venues, meeting rooms, and The Cosmo Beach Club -- all in one location and under-one-roof.
"We've designed The Cosmopolitan to capture the aura and excitement found only in famous, metropolitan cities," said David Friedman, President of 3700 Associates, LLC. "Our vertical, urban design harnesses the kinetic energy and chic lifestyle that make Las Vegas one of the country's most sought after shopping and dining destinations," said Friedman.
The Cosmopolitan has begun leasing 300,000 sq. ft. of retail and restaurant space built-to-the-sidewalk on three separate levels overlooking Las Vegas Boulevard. The space is divided between 170,000 sq. ft. of prime retail space, housing between 45 and 50 retail stores and boutique tenants, and 130,000 sq. ft. of restaurants and lounges each with panoramic balcony views of The Strip.
"Targeted tenants include proven successful retailers and restaurateurs from other evolved shopping and dining destinations such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, and Chicago in the US, as well as London, Paris, Barcelona, and Milan abroad," said Jim Reding, director of retail for 3700 Associates, LLC.
"Retail stores and restaurants will be vertically integrated into the mixed-use luxury of The Cosmopolitan," said Reding. "Unlike other retail opportunities, The Cosmopolitan's critical mass of internal attractors ranging from approximately 3,000 hotel and condo-hotel rooms, a 75,000 sq. ft. casino, an 1,800 seat theater, 150,000 sq. ft. of meeting rooms, a 3,800 space underground parking garage, the five acre Cosmo Beach Club, and a combined 300,000 sq. ft. of retail shops and restaurants equip the Cosmopolitan with all of the attributes to be the most successful retail center, in terms of sales per square foot, in the world," said Reding.