Dream Las Vegas Casino Approved Near McCarran Airport Runways

Posted on: October 9, 2021, 02:11h. 

Last updated on: October 9, 2021, 04:11h.

Larry Henry Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Gaming Business, Legislation, Politics, Regulation.

Despite concerns from major airlines, construction is slated to begin next year on a 20-story hotel-casino next to McCarran International Airport. 

Dream Las Vegas
This artist’s rendering shows what the Dream Las Vegas hotel-casino would look like. Construction is expected to begin next year. (Image: Las Vegas Review-Journal)

The Clark County Commission this week voted 6-1 to approve the 527-room Dream Las Vegas resort. It sits on five acres now separated from the airport by a chain-link fence, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. 

The only vote opposing the $500 million project came from Ross Miller. He said the “threshold question” should be whether the county will allow hotel-casinos to be “directly on top of our airport.”

The airport is at the southern end of the Strip, just east of major hotel-casinos on the resort corridor. Because the airport is in the county south of the Las Vegas city limits, it falls under the County Commission’s jurisdiction.

Dream Las Vegas would be the closet resort to the airport’s runways. The hotel-casino is projected to be built on the Strip near a Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership.

Major airlines, including Southwest, Delta, American, and United, have expressed concern about unlawful drones, lasers, and other lighting that could cause “flash blindness” in the cockpit, the newspaper reported.

In its assessment, the Transportation Security Administration noted that a risk to aircraft and passengers exists because of possible “active shooters” or people throwing items over the fence. 

The TSA also raised the possibility of delivery or garbage trucks carrying explosive devices, and of “long gun attacks.”

On Oct. 1, 2017, a gunman firing from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino killed 60 people attending an outdoor concert across the Strip near the airport. The gunman also fired at airport fuel tanks. In addition to those he killed, the gunman injured hundreds of people, and then killed himself, police said.

Safety Measures

Dream Las Vegas developers Bill Shopoff and David Daneshforooz hope to open the resort by about 2024, the newspaper reported. 

Attorney Tony Celeste, who represents the developers, told the County Commission the project will include various safety measures.

Among other measures, the developers plans to build a “nine-foot tall, double-reinforced security wall” at the property. Security guards will only allow authorized vehicles onto the site, the newspaper reported.

In addition, the resort will have an enclosed parking garage, a 10-foot security wall at the pool deck, and a “glass-break detector system” in each hotel room that will notify security if anyone attempts to adjust or break the windows. 

The 2017 gunman broke windows at the Mandalay Bay to shoot at the Route 91 Harvest festival concertgoers.

Concerns Exist

Rosemary Vassiliadis, the county director of aviation, told the County Commission the developers’ plans should be able to “mitigate,” but not eliminate, security and safety concerns, the newspaper reported

Pilots like open, vacant space, so with that, they will not support a project like this,” she said.

Vassiliadis added that the Federal Aviation Administration found no airport “obstruction impact” from the resort’s proposed 234-foot height.

As this occurs, county officials are developing plans for a secondary commercial airport about 23 miles south of the Las Vegas Strip.