If you don't count the Strat tower, the Fontainebleau is the tallest building in Nevada, with 737 feet of skyscraping height, 67 floors, and more than 3,600 hotel rooms on a 25-acre imprint once home to the Algiers and El Rancho hotels. Now, after 15 years sitting empty, the greatest symbol of defeat in Las Vegas has become a new paragon of opulence–and it's almost too big to fail. The hotel tower was originally scheduled to open in 2009, but a recession, a pandemic, and back-and-forth ownership changes fueled a decade and a half of delays, making it the most notorious eyesore on the Strip. It was a long, rocky road to the December 13 debut of the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas.
