Even so, the sheer volume of those proposals isn't lost on MGM Mirage, which revealed plans last week for its own definitive "urban metropolis" consisting of a 4,000-room casino and hotel, three hotels with 400 rooms each and 1,650 condominium units.

"CityCenter," to debut by 2010 on 66 acres at the site of MGM Mirage's Boardwalk property, is billed as a departure from the usual megaresort that will capitalize on growing demand for high-rise living on the Strip.

Before announcing the project, MGM Mirage spent months vetting urban planning firms and hired number crunchers McKinsey & Co. to find out whether the future condo explosion in Las Vegas is more reality than hype.

"The Las Vegas Strip is like beachfront property," said Carlton Geer, director of the Global Gaming Group division at CB Richard Ellis in Las Vegas. "As land prices continue to rise, future development is going to go higher and more vertical."

There's no question that Las Vegas has always drawn time share buyers looking for quick escapes. But condos represent another potential market. Do buyers really want to live on the traffic and pedestrian-choked Strip?

"Who wants to deal with traffic on the Strip -- even behind the Strip?" Geer said. "By 2010, it's going to be insane."

Condo-hotel units have greater potential on the Strip than condos because with condo-hotels, the units can be rented out and filled year-round, yielding a steady supply of gamblers and shoppers for the casinos, Geer said.

"If people don't want to live (in the condos) full time, it defeats the purpose of having them" on the Strip, he said.

It makes more sense for owners to stay in their condos for a few days at a time and rent them out the rest of the year, he said.

"You can take a cab in from the airport and not need a car," he said.

John Riordan, vice president of sales at Turnberry Place, said access on the Strip "isn't as inconvenient as you might think," given that drivers can use access roads such as Frank Sinatra Drive, Industrial Road and Koval Lane to get to the Strip without driving down the length of Las Vegas Boulevard.

Lots of people want to live on the Strip because they equate it with other famed streets such as Fifth Avenue in New York City, he said.

Riordan agrees, however, that condo-hotel units are probably the best economic model for Strip living.

Most buyers of Turnberry Place condos are Southern Californians buying second homes for long weekends in Las Vegas, he said. Turnberry Place owners can rent their units but are limited to one tenant a year and for a minimum of one month. The condo complex, on Paradise Road behind the Sahara resort, is building its fourth 40-story tower and is credited with fueling the latest boom in luxury high-rises.

Condo-hotels, such as the Residences towers under construction behind MGM Grand, have no restrictions on the number of nights that owners can rent them out to tenants.

Turnberry Place owner Turnberry Associates is developing at least three condo-hotel towers known as The Residences at MGM Grand. Joint venture partner MGM Mirage, which will also consider Turnberry as a potential development partner for CityCenter, will manage the rental process and will offer MGM Grand hotel services to buyers. The first tower, which is under construction, is sold out and the second tower is about half sold, Riordan said.

Turnberry Place, now selling units in the fourth tower, attracts a different market than a condo-hotel, Riordan said. "Our buyers are going to be using the place more. It's a home versus an investment. If you're spending more time there it needs to be larger. At the Residences, (owners) may never use it."

Other casino developers also are envisioning residential condo-hotels on the Strip.

David Friedman, a former executive with the Venetian resort, is partnering with real estate developer Ian Bruce Eichner and an investment company to develop 8.5 acres near the Jockey Club time share development and just south of MGM Mirage's proposed CityCenter.

The as-yet unnamed resort will be largely vertical and consist of a 1,500-unit hotel, up to 500 condos, 300 time share units and 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. It will take at least a year to break ground and about two additional years to build. Additional time shares or condos may be built on the site.

Like the Residences concept, Friedman said the condo units could be rented out by the hotel when not in use.

Friedman said he and his partners examined a variety of growth trends over the past few years before crafting their proposal, including the growing retail market as well as interest in luxury high-rises.

"We tried to incorporate the best of what we saw out there" into one project, he said. "I would speculate that MGM is looking at all the same growth trends we are."

"The issue is more a question of supply than demand," Friedman said. "There's so few (development) opportunities and it's very expensive to buy land on the Strip and to build any residential project is very challenging because of those economics. If people have the opportunity to live on the Strip they'll jump at it."

Donald Trump's proposed Trump International Hotel and Tower, which would feature more than 1,000 condo-hotel units and become the second-tallest building in Las Vegas, is expected to begin construction along Fashion Show Drive and next to the New Frontier property in the first quarter of next year for an expected completion in 2006. Besides the condo-hotel units, Trump envisions another 50 "homes" ranging from 3,000 square feet to more than 10,000 square feet.

Jack Wishna, a minority investor in the Trump tower along with Trump and New Frontier owner Phil Ruffin, said he had envisioned a mixed use project for Ruffin's 60-plus acres of land at least four years ago. While Ruffin hasn't yet revealed his plans to redevelop the New Frontier, those future plans may also include additional residential units once the Trump tower is complete, he said.

Residential towers make sense for casino resort projects because they offer multiple revenue streams, potential casino customers and a way to immediately use profit from the sale of condos to fund future developments, Wishna said.

One of the strengths of the MGM Mirage project is its location near the geographic hub of the Strip, typically defined as the intersection where the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Bally's and Barbary Coast meet at Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Avenue, experts say.

Robert Earl, founder of the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain and a partner in the investment group that bought the Aladdin, said he is eagerly anticipating the CityCenter project across the Strip from where he is helping to remake the Aladdin into a Planet Hollywood-theme resort.

"This is just the type of reason we bought this site," he said. "One of the areas we thought would be developed was that land."

Earl, a London native, said Las Vegas is ripe for high-rise residential living on par with other major cities.

"There are so many people coming in who want to have a home here," said Earl, who also envisions building residential towers on his site.

When state regulators approved the takeover of the Aladdin in August, Earl said his group intended to build time shares on 4.6 acres of land along Harmon Avenue. But last week, Earl said time shares were still only a possibility and that the final plans haven't yet been determined.

Real estate experts also say MGM Mirage's CityCenter plan is more conceptual than final and that some elements, particularly the mix of condo units, could change over time.

"Because the market is so explosive, they (MGM Mirage) want to announce to the world that they're here and that they are looking for joint venture partners," Wishna said. Wishna said he anticipates the flood of new condo applications in Clark County to continue so that developers can get their projects approved before the county implements its first guidelines (read: potential restrictions) on high-rise residential towers that are expected in the coming year.

But Jim Murren, president and chief financial officer of MGM Mirage, insists that CityCenter is a near-complete vision of the future. The plans were devised independent of the county's plans, which aren't expected to slow the growth envisioned along the Strip corridor. "We spent eight months and several million dollars analyzing this and figuring out ... not just how many of each type of residential unit we want and where we want it located but how it integrates with the casino-hotel," Murren said.

He also distinguishes the project from others envisioned by developers who announce their plans before they are financed or fully designed.

"They have a 'strike while the iron's hot' mentality. That's not MGM Mirage," Murren said.

Liz Benston covers gaming for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4077 or by e-mail at benston@lasvegassun.com.