/Las Vegas Sun/ - LAS VEGAS - In a town where distances for businesses are often measured in terms of how far they are from the Las Vegas Strip, the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas resort is an anomaly. The Ritz opened its first Nevada resort on Feb. 11, about 17 miles from the Strip - between the modest outskirts of Henderson and Lake Mead off Lake Mead Drive. It is only the second resort, after the Hyatt Regency's debut in 1999, to open at Lake Las Vegas.

Still, General Manager Doug Brooks isn't concerned about being too isolated from the action. "It's the best of both worlds," Brooks said. "We've got this great destination spa and golf resort and miles away you've got the largest adult entertainment capital of the world (from which) guests can retreat back into quiet solitude."

The Ritz-Carlton chain, which is owned by Marriott, has spent years scouting the Las Vegas valley for a site. In 1996, Marriott announced plans to build a resort in northwest Las Vegas near Floyd Lamb State Park. The following year, MGM Grand Inc. announced it was negotiating with Marriott International Inc. and its Ritz-Carlton affiliate to build a giant hotel as well as a small luxury hotel next to the MGM Grand.

Las Vegas has witnessed a slew of luxury hotel and casino openings since those deals fell through. They include the 1999 openings of the Four Seasons Hotel -- the first five-star, non-casino hotel to open on the Las Vegas Strip -- the Resort at Summerlin, Mandalay Bay, the Venetian and Paris Las Vegas. The Resort at Summerlin, then owned by Regent International Hotels, was sold out of bankruptcy to another company and is now managed by Marriott as the J.W. Marriott Las Vegas resort.

"It has been a long-term process," Brooks said of the company's search for a hotel site. "We recognize the growth of Nevada and specifically Las Vegas and we recognize that our customers are attracted by all the features it has to offer." Ritz-Carlton guests like natural landscapes and water amenities, both attractions of Lake Las Vegas, said Brooks, who previously ran the Ritz-Carlton Rose Hall in Jamaica.

Like other new hotels in recent years, the Ritz will offer a casino. Unlike some competitors, however, the casino will be managed by a separate entity and accessible from a walkway that allows hotel guests to completely bypass the gambling floor. Cook Inlet Region Inc. - a real estate conglomerate owned by an Indian tribe in Alaska - will own the neighboring Casino MonteLago. It is expected to open in April 2003.

The property's style is best-described as a slight touch of Renaissance Italy. Its most distinguishing characteristic a life-size replica of Florence's Ponte Vecchio bridge built over Lake Las Vegas' roughly 320-acre, man-made lake. The Ritz offers luxury hotel suites on the second floor of the buildings on the bridge, while the first floor will eventually feature boutiques and other small retail shops.

The Ritz-Carlton is only the second resort of what could eventually develop as a cluster of five or more high-end hotels around the lake.