Preparations are underway to remove over one-million cubic yards of dirt at the construction site of the Las Vegas Cosmopolitan Resort, which will make room for a five-level parking garage extending one-hundred feet into the earth's surface.  The removal will take nearly six months to complete, and begins in early July.  The resort itself, marks the first mixed-use property on the Strip, which many say is only the beginning of a new Las Vegas dotted with high-rises and condominiums.

The Las Vegas Cosmopolitan Resort is going to be a condo/hotel (2,200 condo/hotel units) and casino resort offering 275,000 square feet of boutique shopping, dining, a massive 33,000 square foot spa, and rooftop beach club.  The project is also the first of its kind for developer Ian Bruce Eichner, who hails from New York, and has mainly built condo towers in Miami and New York.  Seeking to capitalize on the condo boom in Las Vegas, Eichner previously stayed shy of Sin City.

Now, however, Eichner hopes to create enough of a brand with the Cosmopolitan resort, to be able to take it to even more high-profile destinations around the world.  With over $2 billion in investments, the property is expected to be a visually esthetic masterpiece, standing out in genuine style even more so than its neighbors.  Eichner initially invested $11 million per acre into the 8.5 acre property, which financial analysts say has already doubled in value.

Of the 2,200 condo-hotel units, eighty percent of them have been sold already, while over $15 million in hotel reservations for 2009 have already been made by business professionals and executives who prefer to stay at Hyatt Hotels.  Eichner has partnered with Hyatt to handle reservations and hospitality of the eight-hundred hotel rooms available, which they have already successfully tapped into.

As for the casino at Las Vegas Cosmopolitan Resort, it is smaller than many of its Strip neighbors - at 75,000 square feet.  However, the appeal of the resort is being focused on style and leisure activities such as the spa, beach club and shopping.  The casino gambling is just another bonus.  The two-tower high-rise resort is planned to open by New Year's Eve 2008, which will be followed by several more high-rise openings in 2010, thus inciting the new skyline of Las Vegas.