By Laurie Brookins, Photographs: Walter Chin

nce upon a time, a quartet of ultracool guys—Frank, Dean, Sammy and Peter—arrived in Las Vegas, their heads filled with cocksure visions of ...

Wait a minute, that's not right.

Not so long ago, four Hollywood players—George, Brad, Don and Matt—took Sin City by storm ...

Oh, sorry, that moment has also passed.

Forgive the confusion, but it seems that Las Vegas historically has benefited from the influence of power-packed foursomes. Sinatra and his charismatic cronies vaulted Vegas into the hip-quotient stratosphere in the 1950s, while the group that remade Ocean's Eleven in 2001 did an exceptional job of reviving the glam aura of Hollywood A-listers and their fascination with the Strip. The most recent partnership is no exception, and was in fact partly born out of both its predecessors: nightclub impresario Rande Gerber, real-estate mogul Jorge Perez, commercial developer Jim Stuart and actor/director George Clooney, who have banded together in the hopes of creating Neo-Rat Pack elegance with the city's latest on-the-horizon development, Las Ramblas.

Any romantic notions thus conjured up about the intended vibe of Las Ramblas, a $3 billion, 26-acre project slated for Harmon Avenue that, when complete, will consist of 11 towers lining an open-air promenade, are likely accurate--that is, if the four kings at its core have anything to say about it. Indeed, this modernist vision of hotel, condos, restaurants, retail and recreation is very much the end product of its investors' imaginations, each of whom has contributed not only his particular expertise to the venture but also more than a fair share of his dreams, as well.

Of course, any white-hot attention linked to Las Ramblas too easily falls on the guy who really doesn't need any more white-hot attention. But Clooney is well aware he brings one of the chief ingredients to the table: the romance, a combination of his considerable star power and his desire to resurrect a bygone era ...

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