By Jacquelynn D. Powers, Photographs: Thomas Muscionico

s a fresh wave of development rolls into Las Vegas, the buzz is palpable on the streets. Our skyline is being refashioned in a frenzy of cranes and high-profile condo/hotel projects. The roll call of personalities investing both on and off the Strip reads like "Page Six" meets The Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump, Jorge Perez, Peter Morton, Andrew Sasson, Jeff Soffer and even Ivana Trump are some of the players steering this real-estate boom. Interestingly, one of the town's most anticipated ventures, the W Las Vegas, appeared to materialize out of thin air. After all, a trio of handsome entrepreneurs with no knowledge of the gaming and lodging business arrived on this cutthroat scene and scored two coups: landing the prestigious corner of Harmon Avenue and Koval Lane (where Ice now stands) and snaring the coolest hotel partner, W. While everyone else is marveling how this seemingly slipped under the radar, the Edge Resorts' Trevor Pearlman, Reagan Silber and Adam Frank are too busy creating their $1.7 billion hotel and casino to notice.

While their success seems effortless, there is more to the story. All three men were semiretired when the chance to buy a piece of Sin City real estate came up. (Pearlman and Reagan have been law and business partners for more than 14 years. Frank, the former CEO of iFilm.com, is a more recent addition to the team.) Trevor, 45, who is considered the visionary of the group, first came up with the notion of purchasing property in Vegas. "Most people thought I lost my mind or was having a midlife crisis," he recalls. "But I recognized the opportunity. Having no experience in the gaming or hotel business, I had to become a student of Las Vegas. And the best way to do that was buy a small property." In October 2003, Pearlman put Bourbon Street under contract and closed on the down-on-its-luck hotel for $25 million a few months later. "We were private investing," Reagan notes. "Trevor called us and said we have an opportunity to buy Bourbon Street. He saw the real-estate play and the long-term prospect of Vegas." The deal, which initially spanned 4.2 acres, seemed amazing at first glance, and the partners were giddy about their acquisition. "We thought we had bought a jewel -- an unpolished jewel," Silber continues. "All of our friends were so excited that we had bought a casino. At the time, it was a lot of money and we were nervous. None of us comes from money. We didn't inherit the money or win the lottery. But we believed in the real estate, the dirt under Bourbon Street." So they set out to develop a hip boutique hotel that would suit both their needs and the desires of their fabulous friends in Los Angeles, New York and Dallas.

While they were figuring out their master plan for the site (on Flamingo Road), Bourbon Street's existing management kept the operation running. "Our vision for that property came from what we thought was missing in the marketplace," Adam, 34, says. "That was a contemporary boutique hotel, similar to something in Miami or New York. It's between the Palms and Hard Rock, on the one hand, and the Bellagio and Four Seasons. It has the right blend of luxury and coolness. So we started the process of trying to do it on this location. We modeled it out financially and met with the architects. But we realized that you couldn't make it work on four acres. To us, it seemed like all the property in the world. When we dug in there, though -- you have to figure out the parking, restaurants, casino and hotel -- the economics just didn't work." Quickly, they snatched up another four acres behind Bourbon Street. "It was like Monopoly," Frank explains. "We became land junkies ..."

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