Third Fontainebleau exec leaves troubled new Vegas hotel in first month

FILE: The stalled construction site of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas is seen May 11, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. A snakebitten Las Vegas casino hotel, decades in the making, has now seen three executives leave in its first month of operation. The saga of the Fontainebleau began in 2005 when Jeffrey Soffer, who owned the classic Rat Pack Miami hotel of the same name, announced the brand was coming to Las Vegas.

The project, which replaced the razed Thunderbird building, was then pitched as a 4,000 room hotel with a casino and condos; its opening day was set for late 2008. "The Fontainebleau is a magical name, an icon known all over the country and the world," Soffer . Advertisement Article continues below this ad As work began, though, problems emerged.

A in 2009 alleged that construction was outpacing designs, leading to “yelling and screaming” in meetings between developers and contractors. “We were building on the edge, where you race out there as far as you can get and build as much as you can with the least amount of information available, knowing full well we’ll have to tear some of it down in six to eight weeks because the designers haven’t caught up to us yet,” an engineer told the Sun.

That year, the project collapsed altogether. Amid a flurry of lawsuits and over mounting costs, construction ground to a halt. In June 2009, the Fontainebleau filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the mostly finished building was abandoned, turning into a towering symbol of the Great Recession on the Strip.

FILE: Cars pass the construction site of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas June 10, 2009. For years, the project sat empty, despite switching hands multiple times, including being briefly held by famed investor Carl Icahn. A 2017 investment group promised to turn it into The Drew with Marriott, but that project stalled out in 2020 during the pandemic.

Advertisement Article continues below this ad In 2021, Soffer reappeared on the scene, still clutching to his Fontainebleau concept. Almost 2,000 completed but never used rooms were , their style now too outdated. On Dec. 13, 2023, the Fontainebleau finally opened to guests. , it promises “a new era of luxury hospitality” with its 3,600 rooms, 150,000 square foot casino and a bevy of restaurants, including Don’s Prime steakhouse and Mother Wolf, helmed by chef Evan Funke.

But internally, a shakeup is already underway. On Dec. 30, senior vice president of casino operations Michael Clifford left the company. And last week, Fontainebleau confirmed two more execs, chief operating officer Colleen Birch and chief marketing officer Shane Smith, were gone. According to a statement given to the , Birch and Smith “voluntarily resigned.” According to her LinkedIn, Birch worked at the Cosmopolitan for 13 years prior to joining the Fontainebleau.

Advertisement Article continues below this ad No reason has been given for the departures. Currently the cheapest rooms on Fontainebleau's booking site are going for about $250 per night, with prices soaring to $1,600 per night on Super Bowl weekend in February. — — — —.