Boom! Steve Wynn to Reinvent the Strip With Wynn Paradise Park

Described by Steve Wynn as "the most fun project in my 45 years," the chairman of Wynn Resorts has blindsided investors with his barely eight-month-old surprise plans to completely remodel 130 acres of his empire. Taking over a footprint that includes the Wynn Golf Club, Wynn Paradise Park will feature a sandy-beached waterfront around a 38-acre lagoon. While yet to be finalized, Wynn imagines nine holes of the golf course will remain.

Explaining this is "once more a chance to reinvent Las Vegas, period," the Park will be loomed over by a new 1,000-room hotel tower, including a small casino. The addition would follow the Encore hotel room template "with a bedroom and a living room, except we've added a balcony to the outside and retracting glass doors, so all this opens to the south looking at the lake."

A "variety" of restaurants are already promised, including a major expansion of the Country Club steakhouse imagined to "almost" double in size to take advantage of its views of the new lagoon. Many of the bars, ice cream spots and restaurants will follow a "boardwalk" appropriate theme.

Expecting to host two lake shows a day, complete with music accompaniment, Wynn aims to outperform his new theme park competition with nightly fireworks displays launched from a 120-foot center island. Wynn explained, "We could put a water ski show in the afternoon and we could at night have a great show like they have at Disneyland only bigger and we can have fireworks every night and fire five-inch shells that would cover the whole 40 acres as an umbrella."

He has not ruled out charging admission for non-hotel guests, rationalizing, "who gives a damn about $25 or $20 bill today, when a show in this town costs $110. We could stay under $50 and be the greatest bargain in the whole Strip...a $50 bill is bupkis in this town. " Another 260,000 square feet of meetings space will help pay for the estimated billion dollar upgrade.

To keep the Paradise Lagoon as pristine as possible, Wynn has turned to real-estate developer Fernando Fischmann and his Crystal Lagoons company, a primary inspiration for Wynn's visions of water skiing, paddle boarding and parasailing within walking distance from the Strip. The proposal needs to be presented to the Wynn resorts board with plans, numbers and final ambitions in place by "September, October."

Dramatic construction will also be taking place on the Las Vegas Boulevard side of the resort. Confirming the name and concept first revealed by Eater Vegas, Wynn Plaza will add 75,518 square feet of luxury retail space.

Wynn Plaza rendering

Wynn Plaza rendering - Wynn Resorts

Approved to host even more dining and drinking options, Wynn believes demolition work will begin in "May or June" and "should open about September or October of 2017."

Wynn Plaza rendering

Wynn Plaza rendering - Wynn Resorts