Giant wheel is the second under development in Las Vegas

For a company with a mountain of debt, the launch of a huge half-billion dollar development is, to say the least, aggressive. But that’s exactly what Caesars Entertainment did last week when it announced that it would go forward with the Linq project, an entertainment district/observation wheel on the Las Vegas Strip.

Construction will begin this month on the project after Caesars received approval from the Clark County Commission.

The centerpiece of the center-Strip project will be a huge observation wheel—not a “Ferris” wheel—that will feature 32 cabins that will each carry up to 30 people. Soaring high above the Strip behind the entertainment district that will run between the Flamingo and O’Sheas casinos, the wheel will be a technological marvel, according to Marybel Batjer, Caesars Entertainment vice president of public policy and communications.

“This takes that kind of thoroughness,” she told Vegasinc.com. “Only a few engineering firms in the world are capable of doing this.”

The project will include “re-skinning” the Imperial Palace and O’Sheas, and creating more than 325,000 square feet of retail space featuring shops, restaurants and entertainment. Batjer said the Linq would be comparable to Meatpacking District of Manhattan, South Beach in Miami, or Fulton Street in New Orleans, which, coincidently, was created by Caesars Entertainment adjacent to its Harrah’s New Orleans casino.

None of us in Las Vegas ever rests on our laurels,” Batjer said. “You continue to develop and bring new visions to this terrific place.”

At the hearing, the county commissioners said they hoped this project would spur others in Las Vegas.

“It will create thousands of jobs, both construction and permanent, and be another amenity on the Las Vegas Strip for tourists to visit and enjoy,” Commissioner Steve Sisolak said. “It will also provide an economic stimulus to county revenues.”

One fly in the ointment for Caesars is that the observation wheel project is the second to be launched in the last month. The Skyvue Las Vegas Super Wheel began construction on an 11-acre site across from Mandalay Bay. At 500-feet, it will be one of the largest in the world, and will include more than 140,000 square feet of retail and an amusement park. Directed by Las Vegas developer Howard Bulloch of Compass Investments, the project is slated to be completed in the first half of 2013.

While a Caesars spokesman says the Linq project is fully financed, Bulloch could not make that guarantee. More details of the Linq project will be made available during a press briefing in Las Vegas on August 17.

By Staff