Perini Building Wins $1B Sin City Assignment

LAS VEGAS-The building division of publicly traded Perini Corp. has won a $1-billion construction contract to build the Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino, a planned 5 million-sf development on 8.5 acres bordering the Bellagio. Perini will officially break ground at the end of this month.

Perini’s contract includes constructing two 600-foot-tall hotel and condo-hotel towers housing 3,000 units; 300,000 sf of retailers and restaurateurs; about 150,000 sf of business convention and conference space; 75,000 sf of casino; an 1,800-seat theater; a 500-seat cabaret; a 50,000-sf spa, salon and fitness center; multiple nightclub venues; and a 3,800-car underground parking structure.

The resort and casino is scheduled to open in mid-2008. The first major construction activity will be a 90-foot excavation for the subterranean parking garage. The total estimated project cost, including construction, is over $1.8 billion.

Operating under the name 3700 Associates, the developers are David Friedman, a former executive at the Venetian; SFM Capital Management, an affiliate of New York-based Soros Fund Management; and Miami and New York City developer Ian Bruce Eichner. The group earlier this year paid $90 million for the property.

The project team includes Arquitectonica, the project’s design architect; Martha Schwartz Partners, landscape designer; Dougall Design, designer of the casino and retail spaces; Paul Duesing Partners, design of the condo-hotel, hotel units and public spaces; and Friedmutter Group, executive architect. Grand Hyatt will operate the hotel.