The development group behind the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino includes Douglas P. Teitelbaum, Robert I. Earl and Theodore W. Darnall. Earl is one of the founders of Planet Hollywood. Teitelbaum is a managing principal of Bay Harbour Management LLC of New York, a company that is in the business of turning around distressed operations. Darnell is an officer with Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which will run the hotel under the Sheraton flag. The group announced in September 2004 that it was acquiring the Aladdin property out of bankruptcy for $635 million with plans to transform it into Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

The acquisition included a four-acre site at the corner of Harmon Street and East Audrie Avenue upon which Orlando-based Westgate Resorts is developing the timeshare towers. Construction on the first tower is nearing the 20th floor and will keep moving forward thanks to a $400-million construction loan that Westgate closed on late last month. The lender is Textron Financial Corp., a subsidiary of publicly traded Textron Inc. Project completion is slated for late 2009.

Timeshare towers rendering

When it changed hands, Shops at Desert Passage was languishing with 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 sales of closer to $1,000 per sf.

News of its eventual transformation into Miracle Mile Shops, which was completed in May along with the hotel's exterior renovations, improved the property's occupancy and performance. Tri-Star's David Edelstein told GlobeSt.com last year that vacancy was down into the single digits and that he expected sales to exceed $800 per sf once the project was complete.