GUEST COLUMN:

Why the North Strip is a neighborhood on the rise

John Locher / AP

In this Tuesday, May 16, 2017, photo, people walk by the Resorts World site in Las Vegas. Malaysia-based developer Genting Group on Wednesday said the proposed 3,000-room Resorts World Las Vegas will open in 2020 after overhauling its design to have a modern Asian flair and appeal to the younger generation of gamblers.

At the north end of the Strip, a square-mile stretch is turning heads. This part of the resort corridor is being renovated, upgraded and turned into a world-class destination. Some of the city’s most exciting construction projects are going up on long-vacant lots. It may soon be the hottest ticket in the scorching desert. Here are some of the current and future destinations driving the makeover.

• Lucky Dragon’s centerpiece is a 1.25-ton glass dragon that hangs in a chandelier above the casino. It opened in late 2016, breathing life into what had long been a vacant lot. Small by Las Vegas standards but still impressive, Lucky Dragon blends traditional Chinese culture, style and food with modern Las Vegas flair. You can sample dim sum in the lobby before heading up to your accommodations in a sleek, modern room.

• Resorts World will be a landmark site and will add thousands of hotel rooms and an extensive gaming floor aimed at appealing to a younger generation of gamblers. With a price tag of as much as $7 billion, Resorts World is slated to open in 2020. The site it will call home has sat as a partially built shell of a past project that never came to fruition. Plans include a selfie-inspired “celestial sphere” that will flash images of guests. It also expects to offer an ice skating rink, bowling alley, aquarium and indoor water park.

• Las Vegas Convention Center, already one of the largest convention centers in the world, is getting bigger. Covering 3.2 million square feet, including 144 meeting rooms and 2 million square feet of exhibit space, event organizers from around the world have been renting out the center for almost 60 years. A $1.4 billion expansion will see the addition of 600,000 square feet of meeting space, 150,000 square feet of meeting rooms and new technology.

• Fontainebleau has been brought back to life. Construction began on it more than 10 years ago before it fell victim to the recession. For years, the unfinished, 68-story shell of a building sat untouched, with its future uncertain. But no longer. The project has been revived thanks to a $600 million purchase this year. Details remain scarce, but the resurrection has the neighborhood buzzing.

• Circus Circus, home to the largest permanent big-top in the world and the indoor Adventuredome, this year added Splash Zone, which includes numerous water slides.

• Wynn Las Vegas is adding an upscale retail complex.

The North Strip blends old and new in all the right ways. Investors and developers have been attracted to the neighborhood’s promising future, while neighborhood favorites are just getting better.

Between the brand-new hotel suites, spacious condos and new attractions, this neighborhood may soon reach its full potential.

Randy Char is a broker with Sky Las Vegas Condominiums in Las Vegas.

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