And with the arrival of Resorts World, a revamped Sahara, and a growing schedule of events at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds, the North Strip location is no longer the drawback it used to be.Īs it turns out, the address is actually the property's greatest asset. If you don't count the Strat tower, the Fontainebleau is the tallest building in Nevada, with 737 feet of skyscraping height, 67 floors, and more than 3,600 hotel rooms on a 25-acre imprint once home to the Algiers and El Rancho hotels.

Now, after 15 years sitting empty, the greatest symbol of defeat in Las Vegas has become a new paragon of opulence–and it's almost too big to fail. The hotel tower was originally scheduled to open in 2009, but a recession, a pandemic, and back-and-forth ownership changes fueled a decade and a half of delays, making it the most notorious eyesore on the Strip.

It was a long, rocky road to the December 13 debut of the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas.