Anewly opened $4-billion Las Vegas mega-resort will test the city’s recession-racked, tourist-based economy, while concluding years of work for 3,220 tradespeople and construction staff responsible for the 2,995-room, 7-million-sq-ft Cosmopolitan Casino Resort.
Characterized in one media report as the city’s “most expensive debacle,” the bank-owned hotel complex, set to open a year late on Dec. 15, epitomizes Vegas’ real estate boom gone bust. Developers broke ground on the project, originally valued at $1.8 billion, in late 2005 with little cash down. The price tag more than doubled because of owner scope-of-work changes and rising raw materials costs.