The Wynn has changed the face of the northern part of Las Vegas Boulevard, and Friday Steve Wynn broke ground on his second tower for a new USD 1.4 billion resort.

At the groundbreaking, Wynn didn’t need flashy renderings or to brag about size of the new Encore Resort. He says it’s about a small-town Las Vegas tradition that he learned when he was 25.

„When people feel good and safe about the people they work for they have a whole different body language that gets translated to the customers,“ Wynn said. „There is a feeling of family.“

Keeping that feeling of family was a struggle as he ushered in the era of the mega resort in Las Vegas. Wynn said Encore is the right formula.

„Trying to take the wonderful feeling that you get in a boutique hotel and do it for a lot of people at the same time and its worked,“ Wynn explained. „I think that made me nervous before we opened this hotel. I am not nervous about it anymore. Encore is going to exploit intimacy even more. The rooms are bigger, but the hotel is going to feel smaller. It is going to feel very personal.“

There will be thousands of rooms and it will cost USD 1.4 billion dollars, but that’s the price of intimacy he says. Casino floors will be separated from other activities with gardens and pools and at the push of a button he says outdoor activities will be in a climate controlled glass room. And this isn’t the end. There’s plenty of room for it on the 240-acre site of the old Desert Inn.

„We will probably be in construction on this great Desert Inn site probably for the rest of my life and that is gonna be great fun, creating jobs for people, creating opportunity, raising a little tax money and making a few bucks on the side ourselves maybe,“ Wynne said.

The new is planned for opening between Christmas and New Years 2008. Construction is set to begin on Monday.