05 July 06 - At the end of June 2006, MGM Mirage began pouring the foundations of the MGM Project CityCenter, the largest private development under construction in the United States. The project will be an upscale urban residential district complete with high end shops, gourmet restaurants, cinemas, parks and unique pedestrian environments.

The development will be on the site of the recently imploded Boardwalk Hotel and Casino and adjoining land between the Bellagio and the Monte Carlo, and will be connected to these resorts via a state-of-the-art people mover system.

At the rear of the seven tower project will be a 60 story resort hotel and casino featuring two massive curved hotel towers with 4,000 rooms plus an ebony condo hotel tower with 1,543 units. At the north and south ends of the project will be two small boutique hotels including the 215 room Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Residences, which is expected to draw sophisticated overseas guests.

The project’s centerpiece will be two glass residential towers with a total of 810 lofts and over 500,000 square feet of retail space.

"This is the catalyst for our next wave of development," said Richard Lee, real estate analyst for First American Title Company. "Over the next 15 years, all new projects will have different, unique elements and mixed-use profit centers."

A perfect example of this new wave is another exciting project on the new “South Strip” which broke ground last week, Urban Village. Urban Village will be a 50-acre, $1.5 billion project of brownstones, lofts, condo hotel units, and flats at the corner of Las Vegas Blvd. South and Pyle Ave. This project will have over 2900 total residences starting in the high $300s for 800 square foot condos and a full array of commercial services and amenities in its own self contained neighborhood. Urban Village will be located between the new South Coast Hotel and Casino and the upcoming Station Casino development, and offer an affordable alternative to the higher priced center Strip developments.

MGM said their project will create 7,000 construction jobs. And when it opens in 2009, Project CityCenter will create 12,000 full-time positions - the largest single infusion of jobs in Las Vegas history. Next door, the Cosmopolitan Hotel will generate approximately 3,000 construction jobs and upon opening in mid-2008 will create approximately 5,000 jobs. Urban Village will add substantially to these totals, making Las Vegas an employment mecca in the immediate future, and luring thousands of new working residents in addition to the retiring baby boomers. Based on these projections, Las Vegas may be facing another wave of massive growth and appreciation in the next few years.

The official sales center for MGM Project CityCenter is scheduled to open in January 2007. More details, floor plans and estimated pricing should be available by late July to mid August.