Las Vegas Sands has concluded that Broward County offers the right infrastructure to serve a casino and convention destination resort. The casino and convention center operator is equally interested in finding a site in Broward as much as it is looking in Miami-Dade County, according to Las Vegas Sands lobbyist Nick Iarossi.

Las Vegas Sands would need about 50 acres with easy access to main roads and highways and not necessarily on the waterfront, Iarossi said. He is a government consultant with Capital City Consulting in Tallahassee.

The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International and Palm Beach International airports could easily serve out-of-state visitors who would attend large conventions at a future Las Vegas Sands resort destination. Iarossi made the remarks before members of the Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, which hosted a casino forum today.

For either county, he said Las Vegas Sands envisions a resort that would include hotel rooms, a convention center, a performance hall, restaurants and retail space.

But he said the resort would not have enough rooms to serve a proposed convention center that would range in space between 500,000 square feet and 1 million square feet. Therefore, existing local hotels would benefit from an overflow of business from a Las Vegas Sands resort.

Iarossi said his client has yet to come up with a design for a casino destination. For now, Las Vegas Sands is waiting to see what happens with a bill to legalize casino gaming in Florida. The state Legislature plans to vote on the bill during its 2012 session starting in January.

Source:  DBR