Four years after first announcing plans for a multibillion-dollar resort at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip, ex-NBA player Jackie Robinson says he has the financing to begin construction.
The Clark County Commission voted last week to approve an even larger version of Robinson’s All Net Arena and Resort, as it was titled when he unveiled it in December 2013 on a 27-acre site between the unfinished Fontainebleau and the struggling SLS Las Vegas.
Plans at the time called for a 22,000-seat arena with a retractable roof, a 300,000-square-foot retail and restaurant area and a 500-room hotel with a total cost pegged at $1.3 billion. The county’s approval clears the project for the addition of a 63-story, 2,000-room hotel, a 240,000-square-foot conference center, a 2,500-seat showroom, a bowling alley and a wedding chapel. The new cost is estimated at $2.3 billion.
Excavation crews have been working at the site since March, according to a Las Vegas Review-Journal report, the only activity there since a ceremonial groundbreaking was held in October 2014.
Robinson, however, told the newspaper his financing is “signed, done, sealed, delivered” and he expects to begin actual construction by late spring 2018 and complete it by spring 2020.
He named Credit Suisse as the lender but did not provide further details.
