Tuesday, June 15, 1999 | 11:32 a.m.
The Venetian hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip plans to open its $300 million Grand Canal Shoppes mall to the public Wednesday, a spokesman said.
Ron Lynn, assistant director of the Clark County Building Department, confirmed there's a good chance 16 of the mall's 72 shops will be open for business Wednesday. The mall itself has passed required County life safety tests, he said.
"That's feasible, because the actual Grand Canal Area is testing OK," said Lynn.
Seven additional shops may be ready to open later in the week, said Lynn. The rest of the shops will open progressively as they are ready, he said.
The Shoppes area opened both days this past weekend to give the public a sneak peek, the Venetian spokesman said.
"We wanted to allow the public a special preview," said the spokesman.
The preview featured performing gondoliers -- but not gondola rides. And no shops were open to the public, the spokesman said.
The Canyon Ranch spa, located on the Venetian's fourth floor, is now open, the spokesman said. At least eight casino-level restaurants and bars were open during the day Monday. The Canal Shoppes are located one level above the Venetian's casino.
Lynn said inspectors are testing life safety systems in the individual shops. The testing includes ensuring fire sensors work and alert the main fire emergency system, and that sprinklers are installed and operable, he said. The testing will continue tonight and tomorrow, he said.
The public areas of the Shoppes have passed inspection of smoke removal systems, he said.
Beyond the 23 shops that are close to opening, many shops are still under construction and will be tested as soon as they are complete, said Lynn. The Venetian's hotel tower is open through the 34th floor, and the final two floors -- the 35th floor of suites and the 36th mechanical floor -- could be ready for testing later this week, he said.
The Venetian was originally scheduled to open April 14. But when building fire safety systems failed tests, the opening was rolled back to May 3. On that day, the casino and two restaurants were open, but none of the hotel rooms were cleared for occupancy by county building inspectors.
Sophia Loren and hundreds of reporters brought in to cover the opening were put up at neighboring resorts.
Early May 4, four floors of rooms opened. Later that week, all rooms through the 27th floor were opened when the tower finally passed fire safety smoke removal system tests.
The Canal Shoppes were scheduled to open May 14. That date was moved back to May 24, and later moved again to a "grand opening" on the weekend of June 10-13. But grand opening celebrations planned by several shops were cancelled as the weekend approached.
Sephora, a specialty shop planning a store in the Shoppes, sent a cancellation notice stating, "Oops... We had to cancel our gala event, June 10th was just not meant. Sephora was all ready for show, but the Las Vegas building is still a no go."
The cancellation notice said the store plans an even greater celebration at some future date.
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