Vegas Will Get a Taste of the Big Apple : Tourism: MGM Grand, Primadonna Resorts to build $300-million hotel-casino with New York theme.

MGM Grand, the creator of the world’s largest hotel-casino, and Primadonna Resorts, an operator of value-oriented casinos, said Thursday that they will build a $300-million hotel-casino in Las Vegas with a New York theme.

The 1,500-room hotel and casino, to be called the New York-New York, is the fourth major new project announced this year in Las Vegas. The two companies will be equal partners in the venture.

“The hotel-casino will virtually re-create the best of New York, with themed restaurants, a theater and an extensive entertainment center with multiple rides and attractions,” said Robert Maxey, chief executive of MGM Grand.

Primadonna spokesman Lance Ignon said the company developed the idea for the project and approached MGM Grand with it.

MGM Grand offered both expertise in large-scale casinos and a prime 18-acre site on the Las Vegas Strip. The site is at the intersection that already boasts the MGM Grand, Excalibur, Luxor and Tropicana properties.

“That is the primo spot,” Ignon said.

Gary Primm, chief executive of Primadonna, said the property will re-create New York’s famous skyline and include such landmarks as the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Central Park and Coney Island. It will include a water flume ride, motion simulation rides and a roller coaster that will tower more than 200 feet high.

“It will serve as a magnet to get more and more people to that end of the Strip,” said James Murren, a gaming industry analyst with C.J. Lawrence.

“If you combine this with the Gold Strike-Mirage deal, the other Mirage property and the ITT Desert Kingdom, you have a lineup for ‘96-97 that will bring a lot more people to Las Vegas,” Murren said.

The new projects will lead to a 15% to 20% increase in the number of visitors to Las Vegas, which now attracts 25 million visitors a year, a number now growing at 8% to 10% a year, Murren said.