The Fontainebleau Las Vegas is a resort and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Fontainebleau Development and is a sister property to Fontainebleau Miami Beach, and sits on the 24.5acre site previously occupied by the El Rancho Hotel and Casino and the Algiers Hotel. Ownership and development has changed several times since the project was announced in May 2005. It was originally proposed by developer Fontainebleau Resorts, owned by Jeff Soffer.

The project was designed by Carlos Zapata Studio with Bergman Walls and Associates as the executive architect. Construction began in February 2007, and the hotel tower was topped off on November 14, 2008. The tower rises 67 stories, standing 737 feet high. As completed, it is the tallest occupiable building in Nevada.
A group of banks had agreed to finance the project, but was sued by Fontainebleau in April 2009, after it cut off funding. Construction was put on hold two months later, when the project entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Fontainebleau was 70percent completed, and the opening had been scheduled for October 2009. Carl Icahn purchased the project out of bankruptcy in 2010, but never restarted construction. Seven years later, the unfinished resort was sold to investment firms Witkoff Group and New Valley LLC, which planned to open it as The Drew Las Vegas in 2022. However, construction stopped in March 2020, due to the COVID19 pandemic in Nevada.
In February 2021, Soffer bought back the project through his company Fontainebleau Development, with Koch Real Estate Investments as a partner. Soffer reinstated the original name of the project, with construction resuming in November 2021. The project was developed at a cost of $3.7 billion, making it the second mostexpensive resort in Las Vegas. The Fontainebleau opened on December 13, 2023, and includes a 173,000 sq ft casino and 3,644 hotel rooms.

The property was initially occupied by the Thunderbird hotel and casino, opened in 1948. It was later renamed as the Silverbird, and then as El Rancho, before closing in 1992. Turnberry Associates purchased the 21acre property in 2000, for $45 million. The company imploded El Rancho later that year, to make room for a Londonthemed resort. The project was ultimately canceled because of an economic downturn caused by the September 11 attacks.
A privately held company known as Fontainebleau Resorts was later cofounded by Jeff Soffer, who was the chairman and majority owner of Turnberry Associates. In March 2005, Turnberry Associates paid $97 million to purchase 3.6 acres of adjacent property – south of the former El Rancho – that had previously been occupied by the Algiers Hotel. The Algiers was to be replaced by the Krystle Sands, a highrise condominium project that was cancelled earlier that month. The purchase gave Fontainebleau Resorts and Turnberry a total of 25 acres

Fontainebleau logo (2008)
Fontainebleau Resorts and Turnberry announced the Fontainebleau Las Vegas on May 12, 2005, as a casino and hotel resort, with an expected cost of $1.5 billion. The project would be a sister property to the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel, purchased by Fontainebleau Resorts earlier that year. The Las Vegas location would be the second in a planned chain of Fontainebleau resorts. It would be built on the former property of the El Rancho and Algiers, located immediately west of the Turnberry Place highrise condominium complex. Groundbreaking was initially expected to occur by March 2006, with the project planned to be opened by 2008. Glenn Schaeffer, the former president of Mandalay Resort Group, was hired to oversee the new project as the president and chief executive officer of Fontainebleau Resorts.
The Fontainebleau was designed by Carlos Zapata Studio, with Bergman Walls and Associates serving as the executive architect. The resort would have a total of 3.4 million square feet, including a 100,000 sq ft casino. The hotel tower would have 3,889 rooms, including 2,871 hotel rooms and 1,018 condo hotel units. The resort would also feature two dozen restaurants, a performing arts theater, a spa inspired by the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, and a 300,000 sq ft retail mall. Schaeffer predicted that less than onethird of the resort's revenues would come from its casino.

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