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The
site was assembled by buying the Desert Inn Hotel and golf
course for most of the land. The remainder was acquired by
purchasing private residences that were generally located
along Paradise Avenue. While some owners sold early on, others
held out. This resulted in numerous legal actions between
the various parties. In the end, the site acquired totaled
215 acres (870,000 m²).
Wynn
Las Vegas LLC contracted with Marnell Corrao Associates on
June 4, 2002 to design and build the resort. The original
name for the project was "Le Rêve" but was
changed to "Wynn Las Vegas" well before the project
was complete. The original name lives on in the stage production.
Built at a cost of US$2.7 billion, it was the largest privately-funded
construction project in the nation. This compares with the
budget for reconstruction with the World Trade Center site
which at that time was projected to be $1.7 billion.
The
historic Desert Inn Golf Course was rebuilt while the hotel
was being constructed. The course is now known as Wynn Golf
and Country Club.
Early
advertising for the resort featured exterior images of the
hotel tower, with Steve Wynn standing on the roof, just above
his signature logo. The initial commercial aired in some local
spots during the 2005 Super Bowl, and eventually national
spots as opening drew near. A "teaser" website for
the resort included both the commercial and a "making-of"
video.
The
resort was featured on an episode of the Fine Living network's
What Makes it Tick, which was produced by NorthSouth Productions.
Wynn
Las Vegas, designed by Jon Jerde, opened on April 28, 2005,
Wynn's wife's birthday, the 55th Anniversary of the opening
of the original Desert Inn, and five years from the day Steve
Wynn purchased the site. When it opened, the Wynn had many
firsts and notable features, including:
The
first casino to combine the room key and the casino frequent-player
card in one card
The first casino to include a car (Ferrari-Maserati) dealership.[2]
The world's largest distribution of HDTV, into hotel rooms
using high-speed Cat-6 Ethernet cables
The largest installation of Voice over IP technology for hotel
phones
It was also among the first casinos to install RFID tags inside
chips to better detect counterfeiting.
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