These Are The Two Best Things That Have Happened To The Las Vegas Strip In Years

Dropping in to land at Las Vegas's Harry Reid International Airport from 30,000' above the desert floor is always an out-of-body experience for me.

The sheer improbability of it all is the first thing that confounds me (where does all the water come from and is it even morally right for a city to exist here?). Meanwhile, the real estate writer in me is usually just trying to make sense of The Strip from the air (did anyone think how incoherent all of these buildings would look like massed together?)

This time, though, I'm locked in on Las Vegas Boulevard during our approach. My eyes dart up and down its roughly 4-mile length, trying to pinpoint the spiraling, planetary disco ball that is The Sphere — the city's newest entertainment venue — amid a molten mass of a million other lights winking out across the Mojave valley. After a few futile minutes of scanning, the pilot suddenly dips his wings right, banks our plane parallel to the runway, and there it is: a 366-foot by 516-foot Grateful Dead skull and lightening bolt illuminated by 1.2 million red, white, and blue LEDs twirling back out into space.

This story is neither logical nor conventional for me to write.

For starters, I'm not a huge Las Vegas fan. I generally try to avoid large crowds, have never really gambled (at least not in the traditional dice and cards sense), and like to be in bed by 11:00 pm these days. Not surprisingly, bottomless cocktails on the slots floor at 2:00 am isn't my idea of vacation time particularly well spent.

I also typically don't write about hotels for the sole purpose of writing about them; my preference is to cover them as part of a broader story on a specific place or region or a more incisive on a bigger trend, like the rise of hotel branded residences or the emergence of a disruptive upstart . So, the betting odds have never been great that I'm blazing into Vegas for a quick hit weekend just to take in dinner and a show.

Yet, when I got the chance earlier this summer to see the current iteration of the Grateful Dead (now called Dead & Company featuring John Mayer) during their recent Las Vegas residency at The Sphere, I pounced. As a formerly tie-dyed, long-haired jam band devotee, I've made it my mission recently to see every musician I grew up listening to live in concert before they die. The Sphere for its part has been hailed as one of the world's most mind-splintering, must-see entertainment experiences since it opened last September. To tick both these milestones off my bucket list in one trip was more than enough incentive to be open-minded and give Sin City a shot again.

On previous trips I'd already stayed at most of the Strip's quintessential casino hotels, like the Bellagio, Venetian, Caesars, and Wynn. I'd also spent the night at several of the more modern, glass and steel high rises that went up during the last construction boom in the late 2000s, like the Aria and Cosmopolitan.

This time, however, I decided to stay at the new Fontainebleau Las Vegas , whose widely anticipated opening in December 2023 marked just the second major hotel launch on the Strip in fourteen years — which is ironic for a town that's normally jacked up on developmental steroids while the skylines of cities like Miami, Austin, and Nashville have boomed during the same period. I'd also visited Fontainebleau's original Miami Beach location before, so I was curious how artful the brand had been at exporting its iconic French-Mediterranean identity and Art Deco design to the rusty, red Nevada desert.

As with all things real estate, context and timing are everything — especially when it comes to a hospitality project as gravity shifting as the Fontainebleau. So, let's start here.

A lot has happened in Las Vegas since the end of the Great Recession. Most of the change has been widely regarded as positive, solidifying the city as a global entertainment capital as well as a safe, sophisticated, if not quite sustainable, place to live and raise a family. In the past five years alone, for example, the city has added three major league sports teams: the Golden Knights (NHL hockey), the Raiders (NFL football), and, most recently, the Athletics (MLB baseball). The city's warm weather, low taxes, modern infrastructure, relatively affordable housing, and direct flights to almost every major U.S. city have also made it one of America's most popular places for start-ups and tech entrepreneurs to relocate recently, which in turn has caught the eye of Hollywood and Silicon Valley.

"If you asked people in tech 10 years ago what their opinion was of the Las Vegas community, they would talk about gaming," Robert Rippee of UNLV's Black Fire Innovation Hub recently told the Los Angeles Times. "They would also say Las Vegas is really good at hospitality and entertainment, but what they didn't realize is that gaming companies are other types of companies too. They are tech companies, data companies, and retail companies as well."

Then, of course, there is now The Sphere.

First conceived in 2015 by the CEO of Madison Square Garden Entertainment, James Dolan, The Sphere was envisioned as a "quantum leap" for the "future of live entertainment". The basic back-of-the-napkin idea was to give the world's most popular touring bands a custom-built venue finally befitting the scale and sophistication of their artistry, rather than consigning them to sports stadiums and outdated arenas with crappy acoustics and even less desirable sight lines, which had been the status quo since the Beatles and eight-track days.

Seven years later, Dolan's audacious vision has finally come to life. At a cost of $2.3 billion to build, The Sphere is the planet's largest spherical structure and, as a purely technological matter, an engineering wonder of the world: on my way to the Dead & Company show, I met several foreign tourists outside who had come here just to see how its "exoskeleton" was fabricated and couldn't have cared less about the jam band music inside. The Sphere is also now the most prominent piece of Las Vegas visible from the International Space Station — which is saying a lot — wrapping the world's highest-definition LED screen around 18,600 vertiginous seats, each of which has its own acoustical field thanks to advances in wave field synthesis and 3D beam-forming, whatever those are.

As a geographic matter, The Sphere is doing something far more pioneering and significant for Las Vegas as a city. First, by helping to shift the Strip's center of gravity northwards, it's spurring the re-development of a more remote stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard that has long needed it (Fontainebleau Las Vegas, also located north of the Strip's core, is adding to that pull).

As the second most expensive entertainment complex ever constructed (Los Angeles's SoFi stadium is #1), it's also been the architectural and cultural validation everyone who lives and is invested here has long felt Vegas deserves (Dolan could have built The Sphere anywhere), like hosting the Super Bowl or the World Cup, or being selected as the home of the next Guggenheim Museum.

Lastly, on top of several other celebrity-crusted events like the new Las Vegas Formula One Grand Prix, the Sphere has solidified the city's standing as a truly world-class entertainment and tourism destination. It's not uncommon these days to spot A-listers like Jennifer Lopez, Miley Cyrus, Chrissy Teigen, or John Legend dim light dining at Nobu before taking in a Cirque du Soleil show.

For Fontainebleau, whose construction timeline has roughly matched The Sphere's — and whose essence and design are inspired less by its casino and more by its similarities to a 5-star resort in Capri or St. Barths — all of these elevations in Vegas's eminence couldn't have been more perfectly timed.

"Las Vegas is always evolving and has recently established itself as premier international luxury destination, attracting a new generation of tastemakers," says President of Fontainebleau Development, Brett Mufson. "These are people who travel in search of invigorating, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and this is where we come in. The timing of the debut of our new resort is on par with the growth the city has been seeing, and it brings something new and uber luxurious to the market. Fontainebleau Las Vegas feeds the city's appetite for a luxury experience that caters to the demand for sophisticated hospitality and best-in-class service these days."

Hailed as America's "First Luxury Resort" and blending a French chateau meets mid-century beach club vibe, Fontainebleau's original Miami Beach location opened in 1954. It was an immediate go-to for Hollwood stars like Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, and Lucille Ball as well as several U.S. Presidents. Its nightclub was loud and legendary, its beach parties steamy and infamous, and its iconic "Stairway to Nowhere" that led to a cloakroom so guests could make a grand entrance in their evening wear back down to the lobby was one of many architectural elements that broke all the rules.

By the mid 1960s, Fontainebleau Miami Beach had become an American cultural icon, featured in dozens of movies like "Goldfinger", "Scarface", "Analyze This", and "The Bodyguard" with Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner. In 2006, a group led by Miami's Soffer family spent $1 billion on a full gut renovation of the existing hotel as well as embarking on a major expansion that set a new bar for the brand's culture of opulence and prestige. To no one's surprise, the hotel's star-studded re-christening in 2008 featured a Victoria's Secret fashion show and cameos by Usher and Mariah Carey.

"At the heart of the Fontainebleau brand is a commitment to unrivaled luxury hospitality, exceptional service, and delivering unparalleled experiences," says Maurice Wooden, President of Fontainebleau Las Vegas. "We aim not just to meet expectations, but to surpass them, and we're relentless in our pursuit of excellence. These principles and personal touches breathe life into the Fontainebleau brand, and they've always set us apart in the luxury hospitality landscape."

Now, after nearly two decades in the making, Fontainebleau Las Vegas takes the posh, polish, and prestige of the brand's original Miami Beach identity and reimagines it with an attention to detail at scale that's rarely undertaken in modern hospitality.

The 67-story, cerulean glass tower features 3,400 guest rooms, thirty-six restaurants and bars , a six-acre pool "district" (not just a deck), its own convention center, a 150,000 SF state-of-the-art casino, and a 4,000-seat amphitheater worthy of Keith Urban's upcoming residency.

Yet, despite its size, Fontainebleau Las Vegas is also that shockingly Michelin kind of place where it's almost impossible to find even the slightest of flaws even when you're looking for them. From the perfectly tied bows in the bathrobes and butler service in the Fleur de Lis suites occupying the top five floors to the glinting gold chandelier floating like a weather system above the casino floor, every element of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas guest experience has an intention of perfection that delivers equally on execution.

On the design side, the interior vibe is distinctly old meets new, paying homage to Sin City's legendary Rat Pack days as well as the brand's original Miami Beach architecture; yet, at the same time, infusing it with an unmistakably modernist look and feel along with cutting-edge hospitality technology at every turn. It's a delicate balance masterfully captured in the interplay of everything from the signature azure and gold color scheme and plush furnishings in the rooms to the snow showers and sonic therapies in the ultra-indulgent, 55,000 SF Lapis Spa , which was recently named one of the best in the city.

"We have 70 years of luxury hospitality as a reference," says Mufson, "So, while Las Vegas is unique in its offering from Miami Beach, everything we've done here stems from the same iconic DNA and shared history. Both locations embody our brand's signature luxury aesthetic. But Fontainebleau Las Vegas features a modern architectural design with nods to Miami Beach's Art Deco style and historic elegance."

Fontainebleau Las Vegas's enormity of amenities is no less inspired by the brand's desire to merge modern spectacle and celebrity with old school opulence and exclusivity. Public sculpture, paintings, and water features installed throughout the resort by living masters like Urs Fischer and Gonzalo Lebrija are a nod to Fontainebleau's decades-long love for immersing guests in the arts. While on the culinary front, omakase and fusion menus from celebrity chefs like Masa Ito, Alan Yau, and Evan Funke are a bold, global counterweight to the more traditional, red velvet steakhouse experiences offered at Don's Prime and Papi Steak.

"Our commitment to unique and luxury experiences with high-touch service elements and one-of-a-kind entertainment remains at the heart of the Fontainebleau brand," adds Mufson. "And by introducing things like LIV nightclub and our one-of-a-kind restaurant collection to Las Vegas, we're bringing the iconic legacy of Fontainebleau Miami Beach to one of the most exciting and rapidly growing cities in the world."

As for my own relationship with Las Vegas, I owe both Fontainebleau and The Sphere a debt of gratitude and revelation.

For the first time in my life, I watched Sin City recede into the desert as I took off from Harry Reid Airport and felt the denouement of leaving. I wasn't conflicted or confounded, or trying to make sense of anything this time — except trying to connect to the in-flight internet to find out when Dead & Company was playing here again so I have an excuse to come back.

À la prochaine, Las Vegas ("until next time").