Fred Segal Plans 100,000-SF Store for W Las Vegas

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By Brian K. Miller

LAS VEGAS-Fred Segal will be the feature fashion destination at W Las Vegas, the 24-acre near-strip resort being developed by Edge Resorts LLC and Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. The Los Angeles-based provider of hip clothing and salon services will anchor the $2.5-billion development with a 100,000-sf store.

W Las Vegas will rise where the Ice nightclub currently sits at Harmon Avenue and Koval Lane, one block east of the Aladdin Resort and Casino. The project is slated to break ground next year and open in 2009 with 4,000 hotel, hotel-condo and pure residential units; 10 restaurants, bars, lounges and nightclubs; 300,000 sf of meeting space; a 75,000-sf casino; a Bliss Spa; a theater and show venue and an undetermined amount of retail space.

For-sale units will range from 500 sf to 3,000 sf in size. The early asking price for the smallest units is $550,000, or $1,100 per sf. Residences will go on sale to the public in mid-2006. Notable names that have reserved residences include Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra, Anne Heche, Paris Hilton, football star Ahman Green and poker pro Phil Hellmuth.

"When we started planning the W Las Vegas, we imagined Fred Segal not just as our ideal retail partner, but the ideal idea," says Edge Group co-chairman Reagan Silber. "The Fred Segal brand is more than retail--it is a lifestyle."

Fred Segal opened his first store in 1958 and Segal's family members--CEO Michael Segal and store owners Sharon and Nina Segal and Judy and Annie Segal--have helped to expand the chain to 40 locations, anchored by its destination location in Santa Monica.

Edge Group LLC is a development and investment company formed in 2004 by principals Trevor Pearlman, Reagan Silber and Adam Frank to focus on real estate and gaming primarily in the Las Vegas market. The company owns a 75% stake in W Las Vegas and Starwood owns the remainder.

Earlier this month, Edge Group acquired 24-acres adjacent to the W Las Vegas site from Centra Properties, who with Related Las Vegas had planned to develop an 11-tower development called Las Ramblas that at one time counted actor George Clooney as an investor. The developers cited rising construction costs and slowing sales as reasons for selling the site.

Edge Group president Adam Frank told GlobeSt.com at the time of the acquisition that the plan is to complement W Las Vegas by developing the site with a large central casino and retail hub surrounded by a number of different hotel brands that spill into the hub. In addition, Frank says the master plan for Edge East will include pedestrian connections between it, W Las Vegas and possibly with the Hard Rock as well, which Peter Morton is in the process of selling to Morgan's Hotel Group. The project likely will get under way before W Las Vegas is complete, Frank says.

Centra reportedly spent $85 million, or $3.6 million per acre, assembling the various parcels of land that included the 996-unit Harbor Island apartments 56 additional fourplex units. Edge Group paid $8 million an acre for the property. Frank says it's already worth "considerably more than that" and, when the Harmon Corridor is built out in four years, "the pricing will be very much like the Strip," where land has been selling for between $20 million and $24 million an acre.

In May, Edge Group tapped local casino-resort builder M.J. Dean Construction as the general contractor for W Las Vegas. M.J. Dean has managed the development of some 18 hotel-casino projects, including Mandalay Bay, Monte Carlo, Luxor, Circus Circus and Hard Rock. The firm also has on its resume high-rise, for-sale residential developments such as Sky Las Vegas and the Panorama Towers.