LAS VEGAS: The club isn't the most extravagant Playboy venture
in Vegas. That distinction belongs to the Hugh Hefner Sky Villa.
Even in a city known for over-the-top luxury, the 9,000-square-foot
pad may be beyond the pale. Designed as a high-rise version
of the Playboy founder's famed Playboy Mansion, it boasts an
indoor waterfall; a round, rotating bed with ceiling mirrors;
and a pool cantilevering off the edge of the new Fantasy Tower
at the Palms Casino Resort. The two-floor spread cost $10 million
to build and includes plasma TVs, a massage room, sauna, exercise
room, media room and two bedrooms.
Price: $40,000. A night.
Hefner, of course, stays free. He has never been a big Vegas-goer,
but the digs should bring him around more. "They're more comfortable
surroundings for me," says Hefner, 80. He says the suite's design
is inspired by a once-regular feature in the magazine that conjured
up the ideal bachelor pads.
The specifics of the space rise largely from the mind of Palms
owner George Maloof, who in 2001 had a 2,900-square-foot suite
tricked out as the set for MTV's The Real World. That crib rents
at the relative bargain of $7,500 a night.
"Our aim is to create something you've never seen before,"
he says.
In the Hefner villa, the iconic bunny is everywhere, in the
middle of the pool, in the artwork, even facing the Vegas Strip
18 feet high on the side of the building. They're not yet sewn
on the suite's bathrobes. "We'll get that on there, of course,"
Maloof says with a grin. "How could we not?"
