Off the Strip, into the light

OK, so it didn’t cost $2.7 billion -- the price of the opulent Wynn Las Vegas that opened a year ago on the Strip. But at $925 million, the Red Rock Casino, Resort and Spa will weigh in as the costliest off-Strip destination yet, its operators say. And it comes fully loaded.

The resort, scheduled to open Tuesday in Summerlin, 10 miles west of the Strip, will offer a casino with 3,200 slot machines; a 25,000-square-foot spa and salon; nine restaurants; and a nightclub by entrepreneur Rande Gerber, whose trendy empire includes Whiskey Blue at Westwood’s W Hotel and the Whiskey Bar at Green Valley Ranch in Henderson, Nev.

Starting with 415 rooms, the Red Rock complex by Station Casinos Inc. will expand to 850 in early 2007, when a second tower is scheduled to open.

The resort’s real glitz is crystal, and lots of it -- 3 million Swarovski crystals from Austria glitter in more than a dozen chandeliers and drip down faceted curtains in the check-in area, lobby and casino. A 60-foot-long crystal chandelier hangs in the casino’s high-roller room. Plus there are 3 acres of pools, mountain views of nearby Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and an outdoors program.

In contrast to the keep-’em-in-the-dark ambience of many gambling palaces, the casino’s floor-to-ceiling windows will let the sunshine in.

There will be plenty to see and do outside the casino too, so you can exercise more than your lever-pulling arm. Besides dozens of treatments (including a seven-hour “Ultimate Indulgence” for $2,000), the spa will offer an adventure program of horseback riding, rock climbing, mountain biking and other activities.

The resort’s centerpiece will be water. A central pool, which has a stair-cased fountain, is ringed by six wading pools. It comes with private cabanas, blackjack tables, a cafe, and servers dispensing Popsicles and frozen grapes to the overheated.

The cabanas will rent for $100 weekdays, $200 on weekends and $250 on holidays.

The nightclub and spa will have private pools too.

At night, the pool area will host concerts by, among other acts, the Goo Goo Dolls and Joe Cocker, said Lori Nelson, a Red Rock spokeswoman.

The nightclub, called Cherry, with walls lined in red leather, will have its own private poolside cabanas; rental prices weren’t set as of last week.

Long geared to locals, who patronize its easy-access gaming and moderately priced restaurants, family-owned Station Casinos has “branched out into the luxury market” with Green Valley Ranch, opened in 2001, and now Red Rock, said Scott Kreeger, the resort’s president and general manager.

The new resort, he said, aims to combine “the glamorous casinos of old” with the natural colors and light of contemporary Southwestern desert design.

Green Valley is rated Four Diamonds by AAA, and Kreeger said he hopes Red Rock, the company’s 15th resort in southern Nevada, will earn Five Diamonds, AAA’s top rating.

Red Rock’s guestrooms, which are 525 square feet, start at $129 per night for selected dates. The 45 suites, sized from 1,000 to more than 4,000 square feet, start at $750 per night.

Information: (866) 767-7773, www.redrocklasvegas.com.