Although it was generally expected that the Wynn Las Vegas would sit and hold the land from its recent center-Strip purchase, Steve Wynn says he’s forming immediate plans to build a 2,000- to 3,000-room hotel tower on the property.

Few details have been revealed about the Wynn West — name that reflects the project’s location on the west side of the strip — except that a 100-foot-long hallway will run over the strip and connect it to Wynn’s Paradise Park resort that’s just beginning construction.

Wynn told investors he built the infrastructure outside the Encore Beach Club, knowing that he’d acquire the vacant lot across the street and that the Wynn West would open within three years.

Last picture show

The Regal United Artists Theater at the Showcase Mall has closed, leaving the strip without a movie theater. It had operated just north of MGM Grand since 1997.

The closest movie theaters to the strip are now farther south in the Town Square shopping district, a mile west on Flamingo Avenue at the Palms, and two miles west on Tropicana Avenue at the Orleans.

A.Y.C.E.

The new A.Y.C.E. buffet at the Palms is one of the best in town for combining quality and price.

While the high-end small-plates format is similar to buffets at Caesars Palace and the Cosmopolitan, it’s less than half the price at $21.99 for dinner, $15.99 for lunch and $12.99 for breakfast. Show a Boarding Pass players card, which is free to obtain, and get $2 off those prices.

Question: Will MGM properties book action on the WNBA team that they now own?

Answer: MGM Resorts International says that it will not book its own recently acquired WNBA team, the Las Vegas Aces.

No decision has been made on booking the rest of the WNBA, but it’s not a big issue either way according to MGM’s sports book director who said, “The handle for the entire year in the WNBA is probably less than what we do on a really good NFL game.”

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