Desert Passage Becomes Miracle Mile

LAS VEGAS-Owners of the Shops at Desert Passage will re-brand it the Miracle Mile Shops as part of a $50-million makeover intended to complement the $200-million transformation of the connected Aladdin Hotel & Casino into the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino. Already, news of the transformation has helped improve performance at the 475,000-sf shopping complex.

Desert Passage co-owner David Edelstein said recently that the mall was more of a “deserted passage” when his company, Tri-Star Capital and RFR Holding, collectively known as Boulevard Invest LLC, made the $200-million-plus purchase of the center in 2004 from Chicago-based Trizec Properties. Within months of the retail buy, the adjacent hotel and casino declared bankruptcy and relinquished its assets for $635 million to a new owner, Planet Hollywood.

When the new owner acquired it, the Shops at Desert Passage was languishing thanks to 95,000 sf of vacant space, poor space configurations and several disgruntled tenants. Sales were averaging $400-plus per sf, which is solid performance for most markets but a problem in Vegas, where rents are much higher and sales at the competition–Forum Shops at Caesars or the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian–post average yearly sales of $1,000 per sf.