Coasting
By K. Robert Wendel

When Coast Casinos decided to build its fifth Las Vegas hotel-casino, it embarked upon its largest, most ambitious effort to date - the $525 million "South Coast Casino."

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The 52-acre development at Silverado Ranch and Las Vegas boulevards is in a rapidly developing area called the city's new "South Strip."

"We are extremely excited to be developing a new hotel in the expanding southern part of the Las Vegas Valley," said Michael Gaughan, chairman of Coast Casinos. "The South Coast will act as a gateway for millions of visitors traveling from California, and hopefully it will become a favorite among locals as well."

The project consists of 3.7 million- sq.- ft. of enclosed space in seven major structures. J.A. Tiberti Construction of Las Vegas, is the general contractor.

Scheduled to open in January, the South Coast has a 25-story, 650-room hotel, a 64-lane bowling alley, 16-screen movie theaters, 1,000-seat ballroom, 2,400 slot machines, children's day-care center, and seven restaurants.

Additional features include a six-level, 2,500-space parking garage, 60,000 -sq. -ft. of meeting rooms, 650-seat bingo hall, 300-seat race and sports book, 270,000-sq.-ft. exhibition hall, and 4,218-seat equestrian arena.

"We divided the project into 12 major pieces," said Paul Gillett, Tiberti's project manager. "We treated each component as a separate job with competitive bids and subcontracts."

The 19-month undertaking will see nearly 1,200 people onsite during the height of construction. The mammoth job entails 400,000 -cu. yds. of excavation, 145,000 -cu. yds. of concrete and 30 million lbs. of reinforcing steel.

There is a 30- cu.-yd.-per-hour batch plant onsite, which has helped expedite work by eliminating delivery times. Nevada Ready Mix Inc. of, Las Vegas, is the concrete supplier and Tiberti is self-performing the concrete work.

Visitors will enter the South Coast through a 400,000-sq.-ft., two-level lobby consisting of restaurants, casino, day care, bowling alleys, and theaters. The basement -level has "back-of-house" services for South Coast's 2,200 anticipated employees, including lockers/showers, offices, food prep/storage, and dumb waiters.

The 70-ft.-tall will rest on a mat foundation with individual footings. It is supported by 14-in.-thick concrete shear walls and columns.

The configuration was carefully considered in order to maximize useable space and operational efficiency while still meeting building codes. The low-rise connects to the 290-ft.-tall cast-in-place hotel tower, which houses 900- to 2,500-sq.-ft suites.

The tower has a foundation of 137 drilled caissons, averaging 2.5 -ft. -in- diameter. and 30 -ft. -deep, with post-tensioned concrete floors. By using a column- hung system, reshoring is eliminated from the erection process, enabling the building to rise at a rate of one floor every three days, said Darren Gillett, the Tiberti project superintendent.

Two identical 25-story, 650-room hotel towers are already being planned for the future. The additions will flank the existing hotel building to the west and east. The foundations for the expansions are being built in advance so that work can occur swiftly when needed with minimal disruption to hotel guests.

Both the tower and low-rise will have a light-colored EIFS exteriors with 24K gold glass. The property is designed by Leo A Daly of Omaha, Neb. and is similar in arrangement and style to the company's popular Suncoast Casino property in Summerlin, which was also designed by Daly.

Klai Juba Architects of Las Vegas designed the property site as well as the 80-ft.-tall parking structure, 200,000-sq.-ft. equestrian arena, 60-ft.-tall exhibition hall and 2.5-acre pool/spa area.

The project is currently on schedule, but it took 24 months of thought, pre-planning, coordinating, permitting, designing and utility location before construction could occur, said Tito Tiberti, the project director.

The South Coast will be serviced by a two-level, 40,000-sq.-ft. central plant with room for expansion, plus there is a back-up generator, loading docks at the rear of the facility, and 8,000 surface parking spaces with a 1,000-space underground valet garage.

Coast Casinos even contributed $5 million to the Nevada Department of Transportation to fast-track construction of a major interchange at Silverado Ranch Boulevard and Interstate 15, in front of the new property. The single-point urban interchange is scheduled to advertise for construction bids later this year.

Coast Casinos Inc. merged with Boyd Gaming Corp. in July for $1.3 billion, making the combined firm the largest casino company in Nevada. The combined firm has revenues of about $2 billion annually, and operates 11 hotel-casinos with 5,300 rooms in the Las Vegas Valley.