Scottsdale group gambles on Sin City with $50M complex

Bottled Blonde, founded in the Old Town Entertainment District in 2014, hopes to be capping off its first decade of business in style with the opening of a standalone building along the famed Las Vegas Strip.

The four-story, 25,000-square-foot building with features a rooftop lounge for gatherings and events will be located on the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road, directly across from the Bellagio Hotel & Casino.

Because of its prime real estate, the building has fetched a hefty price tag of $50 million. 

Despite the high cost, Les Corieri, co-owner of Evening Entertainment Group – which owns Bottled Blonde – is eager to break ground on his new building later this year and open by the fall of 2024. 

“We never thought it would be a concept that we could take across multiple states, but it took off in such a fashion that it made sense to test this market among others,” Corieri said.

Although Las Vegas is an ideal location for any nightlife venue, Corieri said he and his team had been staking out the city for nearly four years awaiting the perfect spot. 

“This is the one that makes sense because it's not just the Las Vegas Strip on the corner of Flamingo and Las Vegas Boulevard, but it's the highest pedestrian traffic corner in the United States,” he said. 

However, it will be a long journey to get Bottled Blonde opened by its targeted November 2024 date.

The project is still in the process of securing building permits from the City of Las Vegas and Corieri admits that the process tends to take a long time. 

“Permits in cities have traditionally been very slow,” he said. 

Because of this, Corieri hopes to begin breaking ground by September. 

Also standing in the way of the targeted completion date is the rising cost of materials and the nationwide shortage of construction labor. 

According to a report by Associated Builders and Contractors, “The construction industry will need to attract an estimated 546,000 additional workers on top of the normal pace of hiring in 2023 to meet the demand for labor.” 

Adding to the ante, the project footprint sits among the Grand Bazaar Shops, located next to Horseshoe Las Vegas, and will include the demolition of several Strip-facing buildings to accommodate the new construction. 

However, the location was just too good for Corieri and his excitement to get the location operation outweighed any anxiety provided by the potential hurdles. 

“Inflation inflated the prices but there's nothing you can do. We could either wait and lose the spot or build now and continue to do business,” he said.

“The daytime business there is unmatched since there are 150,000 people that walk by this location every day and the nighttime is the same way.” 

Although Corieri admits his product will not immediately be competing with the big players like XS Nightclub inside of Wynn and OMNIA inside of Caesars Palace, he believes that Bottled Blonde will offer an approachable and economical option for nightlife along the strip. 

“We're not there to compete with the big boys, that's not why we're going,” said Corieri. “We wanted it to be more approachable and more economical versus the big nightclubs so we can appeal to the masses.” 

In order to appeal to the masses, Corieri teased that he will have employees from Bottled Blondes current locations in Scottsdale, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and Nashville – which is slated for a summer opening – journeying to Las Vegas to train staff on the company’s operations and procedures. 

“We do that for all markets where we take people from different markets to go to new markets,” Corieri said. “There'll be people within Miami or Dallas or our Scottsdale market who will go to Las Vegas.” 

Once opened, the space will also house three other restaurant, bar, or club concepts inside of its confines. 

Among those concepts is Zuluma, an all-new concept that will be tucked into the third floor of the building. 

Corieri is still in negotiations with two other concepts to round out the building. 

Although this is exciting for Corieri, he humbly admitted that he never thought that his concept started nearly a decade ago in the former home of Axis Radius – which was the longest-running dance club in Scottsdale–— would ever expand outside of Old Town’s entertainment district. 

“I never would have thought this would be in all these different markets but it’s really cool to do so and it took a lot of hard work,” Corieri said.

Info: bottledblondepizzeria.com