Scraping The Bottom Of The Barrel

Observer NY Viva Las Wenner! Rolling Stone Is Planning Casino

By Gabriel Sherman

On the weekend of Jan. 28, Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner traveled to Las Vegas to work on plans for a Rolling Stone Hotel and Casino.

Mr. Wenner’s magazine has a long history with the city. On assignment there in November 1971, Rolling Stone writer Hunter S. Thompson announced the defeat of the counterculture: From the city, Thompson wrote, “you can almost see the high-water mark—the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”

Nearly 35 years after Thompson’s visit, according to a source with knowledge of the deal, the Wenner Media chief is negotiating with real-estate developers to license his magazine’s name to an estimated $500 million development with luxury hotel rooms, a casino and a music venue that would host “the biggest and most important music acts.”

“They’re in the early planning stages …. It’s going to be sort of along the lines of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino,” the source said. That rock ’n’ roll–themed outpost of the Hard Rock Cafe chain opened in 1995.

A Las Vegas real-estate source said that Mr. Wenner’s hotel would be located on Harmon Avenue, the east-west corridor where new developments are sprouting. The Rolling Stone, tentatively scheduled for completion in 2008, would share the neighborhood with the new Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino opening later this year; the $1.7 billion W Hotel and Casino; George Clooney’s planned $3 billion, Philippe Starck–designed Las Ramblas development—and the 11-year-old Hard Rock.

Beyond the similarity in their trademark fonts and their geezers-with–Les Pauls sensibilities, the Hard Rock and the Rolling Stone would be direct competitors for high-profile concerts in Las Vegas. The Hard Rock has hosted the likes of Bon Jovi, Green Day and David Bowie; Mr. Wenner’s hotel would aim for major acts as well.

“It will be acoustically perfect,” the source familiar with the plan said. “Instead of people in the twilight of their career, in theory, they’ll book everyone from Kanye West to U2. This won’t be someplace you’ll get $15 stadium seating. This is about big money and big acts.”

A spokesperson for Wenner Media declined to comment about the Las Vegas project.