AREA15 has confirmed plans to expand its district in Las Vegas by 20 acres, providing a destination where people can “come, enjoy, consume, eat, party, dance and stay”.
As previously announced, the anchor tenant will be a year-round eerie experience from Universal Parks & Resorts inspired by Halloween Horror Nights. This will be joined by additional attractions, entertainment, retail and F&B.
“Ultimately, the district will be over 20 acres – with the goal of building the world’s largest premier immersive entertainment district,” AREA15 CEO Winston Fisher tells blooloop in an exclusive interview.
“There’s really nothing else of this scale that exists with this type of curation. The brand started at 200,000 square feet. It’s expanded to the district. This is just another 20-acre expansion of that.”
The new development extends beyond AREA15’s main complex, home to attractions including Meow Wolf‘s Omega Mart, Illuminarium and Lost Spirits Distillery.
“People are going to come to Vegas just for this”
“I always give a huge shoutout to Vince Kadlubek and the Meow Wolf organization for anchoring the initial development of AREA15,” Fisher adds.
“We are very strategic about working with really strong partners and delivering on what we promise them and then building from there. The more you have, the more people come.”
AREA15 is looking for tenants offering immersive experiences, attractions, curated retail, unique entertainment and exciting F&B outlets.
“People are going to come to Vegas just for this. We are driving unique traffic, and the bigger we get, the more unique traffic we will be driving,” says Fisher.
The expansion will include more than 450,000 square feet of space, with tenant leasing opportunities ranging from 1,000 square feet to 60,000 square feet.
“We’re in discussions for strategic joint ventures with people,” Fisher says. “We don’t lease, we curate.”
“The goal is to continue to find the right strategic partners that are best-in-class,” he adds.
“Our goal is that everybody who’s in the AREA15 ecosystem prospers. We want everybody to be wildly economically successful and to have fun. There’s going to be so much energy in this space and so much for people to do.”
Universal’s horror experience will occupy more than 110,000 square feet in a standalone building. In addition, more than 85,000 square feet will be dedicated to pop-ups and outdoor experiences.
This will include a recently acquired Boeing 747 jumbo jet to be repurposed as an event space. “It’s attached to a building that’s going to look like an aeroplane hangar,” Fisher explains.
Universal’s new horror experience
The aircraft was previously used as a large-scale installation by artist Ken Feldman of Big Imagination at the Burning Man festival. When fully assembled at AREA15, the jet will be 150 feet long and 60 feet wide.
Universal’s spooky new venue will feature immersive experiences, frightening F&B spaces, seasonal events and unique merchandise.
On Universal being a corporate business, Fisher continues: “We do very well with corporate business in Las Vegas, and that’s what our tenants or our partners are getting from us – this center of gravity that is driving all of the economic demand generators of Las Vegas.
“It’s the tourism, it’s the locals, it’s the corporate. The fact that we’re firing on all three is what’s making everybody who’s part of our ecosystem successful.”
Fisher also teased plans for a hotel. “There is talk of a hotel. There will be lodging on the site. We are working on some really interesting ideas for a hotel,” he says. “We have not announced it, it’s not final.”
The expansion will be a place where people can “come, enjoy, consume, eat, party, dance and stay”, adds Fisher. “That is the vision of the site.”
As for an opening date, he says AREA15 is breaking ground on the expansion in the next six months. “We are literally doing construction plans as we speak. It’s a fairly fast build. We will be turning it over to tenant experiences by mid-2024.”
Images: AREA15
