Charlie Palmer Hotel is a proposed 371-room hotel planned for of land at Symphony Park in downtown Las Vegas. As of September 2014, the project is on hold. The project was announced by chef Charlie Palmer as a boutique condo hotel in 2006, with groundbreaking scheduled for later that year. In 2007, the proposed location for the project was changed to Symphony Park, and the condominium was removed from the project. The opening had initially been scheduled for November 2011, but the start of construction was delayed several times between 2010 and 2014, due to the poor state of the local hotel market.
History
Original project
The Charlie Palmer Hotel was announced by chef Charlie Palmer in April 2006. The project would have included a 35-story boutique condo hotel with 400 to 500 rooms, primarily consisting of studio and one-bedroom units that would range from to . The project was to be built on the three-acre site of the Golden Palm Hotel, located at the intersection of Tropicana Avenue and Dean Martin Drive. The project was to cost $400 million, and was scheduled to break ground later in 2006, with its completion expected for mid-2008. Palmer's partners in the project included Marvin Lipschultz, the owner of the property; Bill Richardson, the owner of W.A. Richardson Construction and a former executive for Mandalay Resort Group; and Dan Juba, the principal of the locally based Klai Juba Architects. Adam Tihany, who designed the interior for Palmer's Aureole restaurant in Las Vegas, was also involved in the new project.
Palmer said the project would not include a casino or gambling: "Our focus is on the guest experience, not walking them through a casino and getting them to game." The hotel was to have a sky lounge, event space on the top floor, a night club and cigar bar, and three restaurants, including the first sushi bar to be owned by Palmer. Amenities would include a health spa, a hair salon, sommelier service, and a 24-hour concierge service.
New location
By May 2007, the project's proposed location was moved to Union Park, an undeveloped 61-acre property in downtown Las Vegas that was subsequently renamed Symphony Park. In December 2008, Palmer still planned to proceed with the project, with an opening scheduled for November 2011, to coincide with the opening of the adjacent Smith Center for the Performing Arts. At the time, the project was to consist of 426 rooms; no condominium aspect was specified for the project. The hotel would be located on of land located north of the Smith Center. Richard Kaufman, the president of City-Core Development and a partner with The Charlie Palmer Group, was involved with the project at that time as a developer.
In February 2010, the Las Vegas City Council allowed Palmer to delay construction for two to four years, due to a poor economy. Construction had been scheduled to begin later that year. Bill Arent, the director of the city's office of business development, said, "We believe this extension is in the best interest of making this project happen. This project was proposed as a hospitality project, a non-gaming hotel. The hospitality market right now in Las Vegas is struggling and is to experience some challenges in a few years to come." Kaufman said, "The idea of this hotel is to bring an experience that I don't think exists in Las Vegas, and really concentrating on the non-gaming person who comes to Las Vegas, whether it's for business or recreation or what have you."
In March 2011, Kaufman said that the project would remain on hold because of the poor hotel economy. Kaufman also confirmed that condominiums were no longer a part of the project. In March 2012, Kaufman said the project did not have a start date, as he and Palmer were waiting for construction costs to decrease and for hotel-room rates to increase so the project could be financially viable. Kaufman said the project could be built in phases, with the first phase to consist of 50 to 100 rooms and a restaurant by Palmer. The project, at that time, was to include an ultimate total of 371 rooms. Kaufman said one problem in progressing the project was the uncertainty of what type of other nearby projects would be constructed at Symphony Park in the future.