Dream Las Vegas breaks ground at south Strip

Las Vegas’ newest hotel project is poised to take shape.

Developers held a ceremonial groundbreaking Friday for Dream Las Vegas, a 531-room casino-resort along the south edge of the Strip. The project is estimated to cost $550 million and expected to open in late 2024.

It is slated to feature dining and nightlife venues, 12,000 square feet of meeting and event space and a 20,000-square-foot casino, according to a news release.

Dream, which is being developed by Southern California firms Shopoff Realty Investments and Contour, would offer a smaller, boutique-style experience in a corridor dominated by massive hotel-casinos that often have thousands of rooms apiece.

Located next to Las Vegas’ airport, the project also previously faced such concerns as possible illegal drone flying, laser lights and even bombs hidden in garbage trucks, prompting a series of design changes.

Jay Stein, CEO of operator Dream Hotel Group, told the Review-Journal that his company offers a “highly stylized product” with plenty of food-and-beverage options.

As he sees it, there are plenty of people who enjoy Las Vegas’ entertainment, “but the hotel experience was never right for them,” and he indicated Dream will offer an upscale destination.

Shopoff Realty founder Bill Shopoff noted the smaller size would differentiate the resort.

“We definitely look to be different, and part of that was, let’s be boutique-size,” he said.

Shopoff also said the group liked the project site’s proximity to Allegiant Stadium and to Harry Reid International Airport’s private aviation area.

The ground-up project also marks a burst of commerce for a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard that features megaresorts such as Mandalay Bay and Luxor on the west side of the street, and a mix of low-slung motels, retail space, vacant lots, boarded-up buildings and other sites on the east side of the street.

Situated on the east side Las Vegas Boulevard just south of Russell Road, Dream’s roughly 5-acre plot of land is between the Pinball Hall of Fame arcade and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership.

Clark County Commission Chairman Jim Gibson alluded to the area’s mixed landscape at Friday’s event.

“We have some work to do to finish off this end of the Strip, and … you’re the leaders,” he said.

Dream’s developers announced project plans in February 2020, the month before the coronavirus outbreak upended daily life and turned the Strip into a once-unthinkable ghost town of shuttered resorts.

Shopoff said Friday that developers must look forward, that he was convinced the world would figure out a solution to COVID-19, and that Las Vegas would bounce back.

“I won’t tell you I never had a sleepless night during the process, because I definitely did, but I think we ultimately decided: stay the course and we’d be fine,” he said.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.