EL AD IDB Las Vegas LLC is a joint venture between Elad Properties, a New York-based subsidiary of Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva's El-Ad Group, and Property & Building Corp., a subsidiary of Israeli-based IDB Holdings Corp. The partnership says design completion and the start of the excavation is scheduled to occur before the end of the year.

Published reports recently have speculated that the project may be delayed due to the dislocated credit markets. Elad Properties did not respond to a request for comment, but El-Ad Group president Miki Naftali has refuted those reports, saying the project is moving forward. The would-be development on the former site of the New Frontier hotel and casino is slated to include seven high-rise towers housing 4,100 hotel rooms; 2,600 condominium units; 175,900 sf of gaming; 480,000 sf of retail and restaurant space; 539,607 sf of convention space; a 50,000 sf health club; a 1,500-seat theater; and 227,038-sf of recreation space for pools and other amenities atop a mid-rise podium.

The financial markets aren't the only issues EL AD IDB Las Vegas has had to contend with regarding its massive project. Two lawsuits are in play, one by longtime local resort broker David Atwell of Resort Properties of America, who is suing Elad for a commission on the $1.24-billion sale of the development site, and another by Tamares Las Vegas Properties LLC, the owner of the historic Downtown Plaza Hotel & Casino, which is attempting to prevent Elad from using the Plaza name for its project.