The Fontainebleau–At Last
It was 11:59 in Las Vegas and the gaming tables at the Fontainebleau remained untouched. Then, just after the stroke of midnight, cards suddenly flew through the air. Gamblers roared for blackjacks. Dice bounced off green felt. Roulette wheels spun and slot machines clanged.
But even while the room went from zero to 100 in a matter of minutes at the December 13th opening of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, the sudden acceleration belied more than two decades of labor pains to open as the tallest casino hotel on the Sin City skyline. The property had struggled through ownership changes, economic downturns and pauses in construction—all the while prompting the question: “Will it ever open?”
Launch any new luxury casino and hotel in Vegas and you better have big plans, big balls and a big budget, especially when that 3,644-room hotel has created that much anticipation. One only needed to have attended the opening bash for Fontainebleau to know that Jeffrey Soffer, chairman and chief executive officer of Fontainebleau Development, has all of the above in spades.
Tom Brady threw the virgin dice roll, ceremoniously opening the casino for business. Flanking the former NFL star were Justin Timberlake, a living symbol of Vegas future, and Paul Anka, once a junior Rat Pack member and a regular performer at the Miami Fontainebleau, the hotel off of which the Vegas newcomer spins. Hovering behind the dice-tossing entertainers: a blonde Cher. Various Kardashians were not far away. Keith Urban made a surprise appearance in Bleau Bar, laying down an abbreviated set—right in the middle of the casino. Bold-face names such as Sylvester Stallone and Ivanka Trump circulated.
Timberlake and Anka both performed in Fontainebleau’s BleauLive Theater, seamlessly bridging the old and the new. Anka drove the point home by doing his classic “My Way.” He originally wrote the lyrics with Frank Sinatra in mind, but closed with a takeoff that was all about Soffer and his new casino. Pair that with the fact that Anka regularly played the original Fontainebleau—the Morris Lapidus-designed hotel that served as the Miami Beach headquarters for the likes of Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lewis back in its rollicking 1960s heyday—and he was the ideal man for the job.
The new Vegas property, built at a cost of $3.7 billion and positioned to disadvantage as the Strip’s last luxury stand before low-rise motels and a sprint to Glitter Gulch, drew a crowd. Nightlife lovers were there to check out David Grutman’s LIV, an offshoot of his Miami Beach club. Local insiders like super-lawyer David Chesnoff stood alongside a happy-as-hell Peter LaVoie, newly installed as president at Resorts World Las Vegas Casino from across the street, and plenty of cash-carrying high rollers.
The mood was even more festive inside Solo Club. The domestic high-limit room had the look of an ultra-lounge, complete with cool music, sofas and good-looking people hanging out for cocktails and conversation. A pair of guys occupied one of the room’s blackjack tables, occasionally ratcheting up bets of $10,000, drinking liberally, playing poorly, but still winning. One of the gamblers asked the cocktail waitress to stretch back his arms, then stood up in celebration when he won a hand.
It’s unclear how the night ended for the high-flyers, but it’s a good bet that Soffer, who jokingly pleaded “Don’t win too much money!” from the stage of BleauLive Theater, was pleased to have the action.
For decades, it looked like this property would never get off the ground, as Soffer bet on it intermittently for some 23 years. It went through multiple owners (and at least one other name) before bouncing back to Soffer and his investors and finally becoming the Fontainebleau as we now know it.
The odyssey from ambitious idea to star-studded ribbon cutting began in 2000. Soffer was in the process of building the Turnberry Towers condo complex when he noticed a pair of old hotels on the land where the Fontainebleau would eventually rise. “The properties were a good buy,” he says, referring to the El Rancho and Algiers. “I figured the area would get better and we had some ideas.”
He bought the beaten-up casinos soon after. “Then 9/11 happened,” Soffer continues, “and everything stopped.” By February 2007, things had restarted and construction began on what promised to be a property of more than 60 stories. At that point, Soffer and a group of investors had already acquired the original Fontainebleau in Miami. This Vegas project promised to dovetail nicely. “I’m a Miami guy and we have a hotel, the Fontainebleau there, with a 70-year history,” says Soffer. “It is the first real big-box hotel/resort in America. It’s a rallying factor.”
Apparently, others agreed. By June of 2007, financing for Fontainebleau Vegas came together. Soffer and partners had a budget of $2.9 billion. Then came the 2008 Great Recession and lenders no longer wanted to loan. Lawsuits against some banks followed and the Vegas hotel filed for bankruptcy protection.
The Fontainebleau west sat in limbo until November 2009, when billionaire Carl Icahn snagged the unfinished property for some $150 million. While the Fontainebleau in Miami surged as a hot hotel, the would-be Vegas outpost sat pretty much untouched by Icahn. It stayed that way for seven years until August 2017 when it was sold to a developer named Steve Witkoff for $600 million. He planned to collaborate with Marriott International to open The Drew, named in memory of Witkoff’s late son, Andrew. The slated 67-story property was anticipated to open during the second quarter of 2022. Then coronavirus decimated Las Vegas. Development of the Drew ground to a halt in March 2020. Once again it would go up for grabs. “The building was never touched,” says Soffer. It was a shell of a casino/resort. “We bought it right from the bank.”
That was February 2021. Later that year, Soffer and partners resumed construction. Announcing a late 2023 opening, he said, “It’s kind of a crazy story, but I’m back.” This time, it finally happened.
Now, the Fontainebleau is a nine-million-square-foot resort, debuting as one of Vegas’ top dozen hotels in terms of size. The newly minted casino boss appears ready to take his nightly risks in stride. Two days after the big debut, asked whether or not his opening night customers did in fact take it easy on him, Soffer shrugs and says, “Oh, maybe they won. Listen, at the end of the day, everyone in the business will tell you, ‘Some are going to win, some are going to lose.’ As long as they lose a little more than they win, it’s fine with me.”
For a guy who just opened the newest luxe gambling den in Las Vegas and counts the mighty Wynn Las Vegas as his primary competitor, shooting dice and angling for blackjacks is not everything for him. “The casino is one of our segments,” says Soffer. “We gamble for a lot of money, but this is a resort. Gaming is available everywhere in America. People don’t have to come here to gamble. They come for a Las Vegas experience. And we have curated that with 36 restaurants and bars, a great spa, entertainment, nightlife. Gaming is not the driving force.”
If Soffer is not a dyed-in-the-wool casino man of the Steve Wynn or Derek Stevens mold, what is it that drew him to Las Vegas? “It’s the biggest hotel and resort market in the world,” Soffer answers. “The volume of people is massive and all the ingredients [for a hotelier’s success] are there.”
Good taste resonates in the well-designed guest rooms, outfitted with robes that are unforgettably plush and require discipline to resist sneaking them into suitcases. There are oversized tubs, relaxing earth-toned color schemes and some of the best water pressure in town. Upgrade to a high-roller suite and you might get a pool table in the living room.
Fontainebleau brings a Miami vibe to the desert. “There is a lot of DNA from Miami that I put into Las Vegas,” says Soffer. That’s evident in the Vegas property’s white marble floors, images of countless bowties sneaking in everywhere (Lapidus famously wore one every day) and curves upon curves. “Like Fontainebleau Miami, this is a high-design hotel with a host of details. Vegas needs a design-oriented resort, not a bunch of themes. Theme something and it gets dated. When you have something that is really designed from day-one, you can always fix stuff and update it.”
Nowhere does the Fontainebleau Vegas pay tribute to Miami Beach, the city where the Soffer family made its bones, more than in the Poodle Room. A reincarnation of the storied lounge of the original Fontainebleau, it promises to be the crown jewel in Vegas, a private club on the top floor of the hotel, which is the tallest building in Nevada, excluding unoccupied towers. Scheduled for a New Year’s Eve kickoff, it will be open for members, high-rollers and guests in the priciest suites. The Poodle Room boasts a cigar lounge, Japanese inflected bar snacks and high-stakes gambling in an ultra-luxe environment. The 20,000-square-foot space will offer views overlooking the city.
Inside the Poodle will reside one of the most elite restaurants in a town full of swank eateries: the 12-seat sushi spot called Ito. The partnership features sushi masters Kevin Kim and Masa Ito, whose 16-seat Ito in downtown Manhattan is one of the most lauded sushi destinations in the city. “We’ll be flying in fish from Japan every day,” says Ito. “It will be as fresh as the fish in a Tokyo omakase room.”
With its fireside whiskey bar specializing in rare Japanese tipples, the eatery is one of many foodie magnets at Fontainebleau. Don’s Prime is a classically plush steakhouse with cuts that are highlighted by a 49-day, dry-aged, bone-in ribeye and olive-fed wagyu along with the very Miami appetizer of stone crab claws. La Fontaine is a French restaurant, casually elegant and helmed by Alain Ducasse veteran Laëtitia Rouabah, with a menu that can take you from splendidly fluffy pancake soufflés to a perfectly rare Magret de Canard. L.A.’s Mother Wolf, one of the toughest reservations in Tinsel Town, gives itself a Sin City upgrade with caviar service and an over-the-top chicken for two that comes sprinkled with white truffles. The crispy skinned chicken ranks among Mother Wolf chef Evan Funke’s favorite dishes on offer. “It’s a bit of a spectacle and extremely decadent,” Funke says. “But Vegas is the place for decadence. We’re here for somebody who just won a $100,000 jackpot and wants to have a top Barolo along with all the caviar in the house.”
Other restaurants include Southeast-Asian-inspired Komodo and Papi Steak, named for the charismatic, Brooklyn-born chef/hype-man David “Papi” Einhorn. Both of them are clean transplants from South Beach. Casual spots such as Miami Slice and El Bagel have the same pedigree and go to great lengths to recreate the taste found in the originals. “Initially,” says chief operating officer Colleen Birch, “there were concerns about them being able to replicate their dough here.” Vegas water and humidity, quite different from what you get in Florida, were the concerns. The new bread maker at the hotel actually had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to see how the doughs are made.
While art reigns as a part of the Fontainebleau Miami design scheme and has become de rigueur in Vegas casinos, here it is taken to the next level. An expansive space near one of the casino’s entrances serves as a virtual private museum for the sculptor Urs Fischer. The room’s centerpiece: a giant abstract sculpture, part of Fischer’s “Lovers” series, made from aluminum, stainless steel and gold leaf. A piece from Brooklyn’s Breakfast studio has mirrored panels that undulate according to waves breaking on various coasts around the world. It feels like the perfect marriage of Vegas spectacle and high-end conceptual art. As impressive as it is now, the art component is a work in progress.
Soffer knows that, as a casino arriviste, he needs a uniquely sharp edge to make it in 2024 Vegas. In a town loaded with publicly traded casinos, he figures that his advantage comes from having a very interested owner on premise keeping an eye on the proceedings. “Customers, especially at the high-end, like to see that the owner is around,” Soffer says. “You can hire a CEO on stock options and he’s looking at when his options become available. I don’t have that view. I have the long view that if I build with quality and keep it running right, good things will come.”
