Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Vegas takes starring role in ‘environmental thriller,’ nuclear attack

The eco/green/sustainability movement seems, in some ways, to be getting out of hand.

A woman named Kathleen Kaufman has written an "environmental thriller" novel called The Tree Museum.

A publicity release relates the following:

"Kaufman chose Las Vegas as a key location in The Tree Museum and dramatically transforms it into a completely self-sustaining city by a seemingly all-powerful force called only 'the signmakers.' The book follows the journey of a torn couple as they make their way across a transforming western U.S., where they meet their climatic fate in the new environmentally utopian Las Vegas.''

"Las Vegas represents a city almost entirely dependent on outside resources," said Kaufman. "It was a fascinating challenge to create a green Vegas that was not only self-sustaining but also was dedicated to pioneering much of green technology that fueled the world created in The Tree Museum."

No doubt, the movie version of the book will rank right up there in the excitement department with "Casino," "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Ocean's Eleven."

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An even less realistic version of Las Vegas is being developed by a group of software geniuses at Obsidian Entertainment for Bethesda Softworks.

In what PC gaming insiders called a bombshell announcement last week in London, Bethesda revealed during Bethesda's Gamer Day that the next series in its role-playing Fallout game will be Fallout New Vegas and that it's coming to the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 next year. That's fallout as in the fallout after a nuclear attack.

"The choice of location is pretty good, considering that it allows the creators to render an urban area, decrepit and destroyed, surrounded by a big amount of radioactive desert," commentators at Softpedia.com said.

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Officials at the LVCVA and big hotel companies fielded calls from reporters Monday checking suggestions that the big Fontainebleau resort may not be able to accommodate some meetings and events it has booked for this fall because of uncertainties about financing, and when it's going to open.

No one could confirm this and Fontainebleau spokesman Dave Satterfield said, "We have not changed the opening date for the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, although that is a possibility. If we were to postpone the opening, we would inform any convention groups affected by such a decision."

We also asked Satterfield which retailers would occupy the resort's retail component, and he said Fontainebleau is not disclosing that information at this time -- and that the announcement of tenants typically occurs much closer to the opening.

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Town Square Las Vegas, like Fontainebleau, is a development led by the Turnberry real estate group. Town Square said that despite the difficult economic environment, it's making progress in leasing its office space.

Town Square said BDO Seidman LLP, a professional service organization, recently moved its office to 6,200 square feet at Town Square from the Hughes Center.

The company provides assurance, tax, risk advisory, business restructuring, litigation and fraud investigation services.

"We looked at several options for office space in Las Vegas and ultimately selected Town Square because of its central location, built-in amenity base and the appeal it will have for clients," Bill Powell, assurance business line leader for BDO Seidman’s Las Vegas office, said in a statement. "The environment at Town Square is a great match for us, offering excellent proximity to our clients and many amenities on site for our employees."

Town Square also announced two more recent additions. SCA Entertainment LP, an international marketing service firm specializing in promotional risk coverage and technology solutions for sweepstakes and games; and Up All Day, a creative design agency, opened in March.

The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, Turnberry Ltd., Resultzzs2 and Southern Pride are also current tenants of Town Square.

Opening this spring are Drex LLC, a brand communications agency; Go Wolfe LLC, a venture capitalist firm, and Aspen Asset Management, a financial services firm.

Currently, Town Square has executed leases for approximately 80,000 square feet of office space and proposals are being negotiated for another 120,000 square feet of office space, said Steve Levine, vice president of office leasing for Turnberry Associates.

"From the onset, Turnberry planned the office component with large office tenants in mind," Levine said. "The floor plate design, relatively column-free interior space and low common area factors provide for extremely efficient office space options. Accordingly, tenants can utilize, and pay for, less space than they would at more traditional, competitive buildings that feature square or rectangular shaped, central-core floor plates. Larger office tenants can get more ‘bang for their buck.’"

Speculative office suites are also appealing at Town Square, he said.

"We pre-built these suites for tenants who need to move in quickly or need a temporary space to work while their permanent site is being built," he said. "Also, they can serve as an incubator allowing small tenants to occupy space on a short-term basis while the company plans for future growth."

Town Square features 350,000 square feet of Class A office space located on levels two and three in six of the center’s 22 buildings. Tenants are amidst more than 10 restaurants as well as numerous retailers and entertainment amenities.

Town Square, developed by Turnberry Associates and Centra Properties, is at Las Vegas Boulevard at the junction of I-15 and I-215.

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