Turnberry has casino in mind
The company's aim to woo affluent tenants made the removal of a Strip eyesore imperative

By HUBBLE SMITH
REVIEW-JOURNAL


A hotel-casino project remains high on Turnberry Associates' list of possible developments for 21 acres formerly occupied by the El Rancho hotel, which was scheduled for implosion early this morning.

Jeffrey Soffer, vice president and principal of Turnberry, said Monday he plans to apply for a Nevada gaming license and would probably seek a partner with gaming experience to operate a north Strip property.

"Obviously, that's one of the higher possibilities," Soffer said. "We own five hotels now, soon to be six." They're under the Marriott and Hilton brands, he said.

Don Soffer, who founded Aventura, Fla.-based Turnberry Associates in 1967, said he has no immediate plans for the property. It could be sold for a quick profit to another company, probably for gaming. Or his son, Jeffrey, could run the hotel-casino, he said.

Turnberry bought the El Rancho from International Thoroughbred Breeders for $45 million earlier this year and announced demolition plans, knowing it had to improve the view from a nearby luxury high-rise condominium project the company is developing on Paradise Road across from the Las Vegas Hilton.

The 13-story dilapidated El Rancho sat empty for more than a decade and was repeatedly voted the city's worst eyesore in a Review-Journal readers poll.

The first El Rancho, built across the street on the southwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue in 1942, was destroyed by fire in 1960. The current site was developed in 1948 as the Thunderbird and later became the Silverbird. Casino operator Ed Torres bought it and renamed it the El Rancho in 1982.

Las Vegas Entertainment Network Inc., based in Los Angeles, purchased the shuttered hotel in 1993 for $36.5 million, then resold it to International Thoroughbred Breeders Inc., of Cherry Hill, N.J., in 1996 for $43.5 million.

With the class of people Turnberry Place is bringing to Las Vegas, the El Rancho had to go, Don Soffer said.

"They're going to bring another dimension to Las Vegas," Soffer said of the residents that will live in the four, 38-story towers of luxury condos. "Like New York City, these are people who would rent on Park Avenue. They have different homes. This is an element of people who don't want to have to check into hotels."

Two-, three- and four-bedroom floor plans are priced from $350,000 to $5 million, and the first of the 185-unit towers is sold out, according to John Riordon, vice president of sales. Construction on the second tower just started, he said. Turnberry Associates has developed $15 million in commercial and residential property, including 15 million square feet of retail space, 2,000 luxury apartment units, and 1,640 hotel and resort rooms.

El Rancho was being imploded by LVI Services of Las Vegas, which also brought down the Dunes, Landmark, Sands, Hacienda and Aladdin hotels. More than 700 pounds of dynamite was packed into the structure, with the total time on the detonation and collapse to be about 20 seconds, said Ray Zukowski, project manager for the demolition company.