Chinese-Themed Las Vegas Property Planned

A group of California developers announced plans to build an Asian-themed hotel-casino on 10 acres along the west side of Las Vegas Boulevard, just south of the Strip in Las Vegas. Plans for the Dynasty Forbidden City resort call for a four-story hotel tower with a U-shaped parking garage wrapped around it in a design meant to resemble the Great Wall of China. Nick and Peter Panchev, father-and-son heads of a Chino Hills architecture firm, and Yorba Linda attorney Harold Spiegel are among six principals in the $104-million project. Panchev said the partners already have secured $50 million to finance the hotel and will seek the remaining funding from private investors. The group hopes to begin construction June 1 and open by June 2002.