Desert Reign

(page 1 of 2)

IT IS QUITE SOMETHING to spend the night sampling the benign vice inherent to the Las Vegas Strip, then find yourself naked the next morning, with brown rocks wedged between your toes.

No, I wasn’t kidnapped by a wiseguy intent on having me sleep with the fishes. And no, I didn’t go on a bender and wander off to Reno.

By night on the Strip, I was at a fête at Tao, a new Venetian nightclub. Britney Spears and K-Fed were reportedly here. Music throbs. Lights dance. This is the Vegas we expectantly indulge in.

But 17 miles away——30 minutes by town car——is a creation married to Las Vegas in name only. With Sin City still surging through my veins, I arrive in Lake Las Vegas. It’s late morning, and I’m still imbued with Strip-derived edge.

So I report to the spa for a massage. Spa Moulay at the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas is Morocco-themed. Offerings include something called the harem’s blend——a full-body wrap that’s preceded by exfoliation and massage and concludes over Moroccan tea.

I opt for the desert stone massage. Hot rounded rocks are placed strategically on my back, legs——and yes, smaller rocks are placed between my toes. While a pleasant masseuse rubs grapeseed oil into my back, solemn music quietly plays in the background. I ought to be falling asleep. But I don’t. My mind is racing. It’s still filled with images of crowded casinos, bouncing dice and colorful neon lights.

Hey, no complaints regarding the spa treatment. It’s near-perfect. In fact, I recommend anyone leaving Sin City take the time to transition to lake life by slowing down on a massage table.

DEVELOPER RONALD BOEDDEKER flew over the Nevada desert in the mid-1980s and observed the Las Vegas Wash (a desert wetlands described as an “urban” river). The president and chairman of Transcontinental Properties had recently visited Lake Como, Italy. Something clicked. Boeddeker looked at the wash and decided it should become a lake. And it should be surrounded by Mediterranean-theme resorts and homes. That vision is slowly becoming a reality.

By 1991, an 18-story dam had converted the wash to a 320-acre lake with 10 miles of shoreline. Residential home sales began two years later. The Hyatt Regency opened in 1999 and was followed by an AAA five-diamond Ritz-Carlton and the condominium suites of the MonteLago Village Resort.

Today, the 3,500-acre resort includes the three hotel properties, 1,000 residences, three golf courses, a pair of small casinos and the MonteLago village. The village is an upscale commercial collection of boutiques and bistros.

Lake Las Vegas is still far from completion. The MonteLago Village Resort is expanding. A Loews hotel is scheduled to break ground this year. Another golf course is in the works. And at build-out, about 9,000 homes will be in place. (The homes range from $16 million waterfront manses to multimillion-dollar fractional-ownership condos——with all manner of gated-community custom homes between.)

Boeddeker’s vision is targeted to be completed in 2015.