A newly formed property group, the Fontainebleau Resorts, announced today that they will build a $1.5 billion, 4,000 room jumbo-resort on the Las Vegas Strip and it will be named after the famed Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami.

The Fontainebleau Vegas hotel will be built on the north end of the strip, tucked between an old water park and the Riviera hotel-casino.

The Vegas project will have a condo-hotle element, thanks to an alliance between Fontainebleau and Turnberry, which has sold more than $2 billion in condominium projects in Miami and Las Vegas in the last five years. Turnberry has been a leader of the high-rise condo-hotel craze in Las Vegas.

Former Mandalay Resort Group President Glenn Schaeffer has signed onto the Las Vegas-based company as chief executive and president.

The founder, Jeffrey Soffer is also a CEO for Turnberry Associates which just bought the Miami Fontainebleau in January.

The historic Miami Hotel will get a facelift. Plans are in development to turn the Miami hotel into a high-end contemporary resort featuring distinctive restaurants, swank clubs, live entertainment venues, a world-class spa and dramatic poolscaping.

Fontainebleau the company will eventually will go public, according to Schaeffer.

The project is scheduled to break ground next year and open in the second half of 2008.

Links: Las Vegas Sun, HotelChatter