LEADING LAS VEGAS : NEW YORK-NEW YORK DEBUTS NEW WAVE OF MEGARESORTS.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Daily News Staff Writer

Start spreadin' the news: Las Vegas is reinventing itself.

Starting with New York-New York.

The Jan. 3 opening of the Big Apple imitation, the latest of the themed megaresorts, is the beginning of a three-year wave of construction along the Strip - Las Vegas Boulevard - destined to add a handful of giant hotel-casino complexes to the skyline. Along with the new resorts are planned enough renovations and reconstructions to make Bugsy Siegel, the gangster whose foresight put Vegas on the map as a gaming mecca, spin in his crypt.

At the same time, some of the oldest hotels, built during Vegas' heyday in the late 1940s and '50s, are collapsing into the desert dust: The Dunes was leveled in a fiery movie explosion in October 1993 and the Landmark was also fodder for the camera when it was blasted into the past in November 1995; the Sands, once the home of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack, was imploded Nov. 26; and the Hacienda will meet a similar fate on New Year's Eve.

Out with the old, in with the new.

``It's a new city,'' said Myrum Borders, who heads the Las Vegas News Bureau. ``Obviously, if you're going to build new things, you're going to have to tear down old things. Las Vegas remakes itself whenever it needs to.''

And to accommodate all the tourists who want to come, Las Vegas needs more rooms. Visitors will have more than 100,000 to choose from once New York-New York opens, and in the next two years, the room inventory should swell by more than 20,000 more as new hotels are completed.

How many rooms are too many? Nobody's yelling ``enough!'' yet, said Tom Hall, senior vice president and general manager of Harrah's, which is junking its landmark showboat theme for a sleeker image - and adding rooms.

``The $64,000 question about Las Vegas is, how high is up?'' Hall said. ``We haven't reached the sky yet. As new supply is added, it generally adds to demand.''

By the end of 1996, the number of visitors to Las Vegas is expected to top 32 million; with New York-New York leading the tourist charge to the new generation of megaresorts, 1997 promises to bring in even more gamblers.

Here's a rundown of what's planned:

New York-New York: Billing itself as ``the greatest city in Las Vegas,'' the $460 million, 2,034-room hotel at Tropicana Avenue and the Strip - owned by MGM Grand Inc. and Primadonna Resorts - offers guest rooms in 12 skyscrapers that are replicas (about one-third the size of the originals) of actual New York office buildings; the tallest will be the 47-story Empire State Building. A replica of the Statue of Liberty greets guests at the entrance; there's a Coney Island-style roller coaster, a 300-foot-long replica of the Brooklyn Bridge and design elements reflecting Manhattan's Park Avenue, Central Park, Broadway, Times Square, the Financial District and Greenwich Village.

A bumper-car arena features re-creations of checker cabs and black limousines careening through downtown Manhattan. Families can sample a Coney Island-style entertainment center. And restaurants will reflect New York tastes, from pushcart hot dogs to specialties from Little Italy and the corner deli. Room rates range from $89 midweek to $129 weekends, and hotel spokeswoman Caroline Coyle says the new hotel is booked solid for its first week of operations.

Bellagio: Construction began this fall on Mirage Resorts Inc.'s new 3,000-room, $1.25 billion resort inspired by the village of Bellagio in northern Italy. Rising on the 122-acre site of the former Dunes hotel, the new resort will feature a meandering 12-acre lake, classical gardens, European fountains and pools, and, Mirage chairman Steve Wynn promises, the most elegant accommodations in Las Vegas in ``the single most extravagant hotel ever built on Earth.''

Room rates are expected to be ``in the high 100s,'' said spokeswoman Jennifer Michaels. ``We're trying to attract the customer who maybe hasn't been to Las Vegas before, who's used to going to the Riviera, to Rio.''

A $30 million choreographed water ballet in the lake will feature lights and water jets. A monorail will transport guests between Bellagio and the Monte Carlo hotel, which opened last summer; a second monorail will connect Bellagio with the Mirage hotel. The hotel tower should be completed in January. With inside work and landscaping taking the better part of two years, opening is scheduled for September 1998.

Paris/Las Vegas: Bally Grand Inc. will fill the vacant lot south of Bally's on the Strip with a new, 36-story, 3,220-room hotel and casino with a French theme featuring a 50-story replica of the Eiffel Tower. Also included in the $500 million resort will be miniatures of Paris landmarks such as the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysees, the Paris Opera House and the River Seine. Each guest room will include three phones and desk-level hookups for laptop computers, as well as expedited check-in, check-out and room service, said general manager Paul V. Pusateri.

``It's going to give the illusion of being in Paris,'' Pusateri said. ``We're not trying to be the biggest (hotel). We're offering European service that people in America - particularly in Las Vegas - aren't used to.'' Groundbreaking is scheduled for spring, with completion set for late 1998 or early 1999.

Planet Hollywood: Movie stars and Planet Hollywood shareholders Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis helped break ground earlier this month for the Planet Hollywood Casino, which will celebrate the worlds of movies and television with a 42-story, 3,000-room hotel, casino and convention center on 34.5 acres at Sands Avenue and the Strip. The $830 million resort, a joint venture of New York-based ITT Corp. and New York-based Planet Hollywood International, is scheduled to open in early 1999.

Plans for the complex also include 120,000 square feet of meeting and convention space, 60,000 square feet of retail space, a 1,600-seat showroom, a 250-seat casino lounge entertainment venue and six restaurants.

Carnival in Venice?: Las Vegas Sands Inc. chairman Sheldon Adelson plans to build the world's largest resort hotel - a $1.8 billion, Venetian-themed casino, resort and entertainment complex - on the site of the old Sands hotel. Construction on the new project - as yet unnamed - is scheduled to begin early in 1997, with opening in 1999. The new property will include two hotel towers containing 6,000 luxury suites, 200,000 square feet of casino space, a luxury spa and a 750,000-square-foot shopping and dining area featuring 30 restaurants, said spokesman Kurt Ouchida. An additional 400,000 square feet of meeting space will be added to the current 1.2 million-square-foot convention and exhibition complex behind the old Sands hotel tower.

Circus Circus: Earlier this month, the hotel that first appealed to gamblers' kids opened a new, $60 million tower that features 1,000 more guest rooms tucked between the original Circus Circus hotel and the new Grand Slam Canyon entertainment venue.

And later this winter, Circus Circus Enterprises will break ground for a new 3,690-room resort on the old Hacienda hotel site, said Yvonne Lewis, public relations assistant. Also planned on the site is a separate 400-room Four Seasons hotel - one of the few in Las Vegas with no casino, designed primarily for business travelers and ``high-end'' travelers - that will be connected to the larger new hotel. No names have been chosen for the two new hotels, which are scheduled to open sometime in the second half of 1998.

Aladdin Hotel: The resort will keep its original Arabian nights theme, but a $600 million renovation will add two new towers that will house 1,500 rooms, as well as upgrading the existing 1,100 rooms. Also added will be a 540,000-square-foot shopping mall, an enlarged casino and 100,000 square feet of convention space. Work is scheduled to begin in spring 1997, with completion set for 1999.

Harrah's: The showboat facade of this Strip showplace has been replaced by sleek glass, part of a $200 million renovation. The changes will add 22,000 feet of Mardi Gras/Carnaval-themed casino space, six new restaurants, a Brazilian-themed lounge and a 35-story hotel tower with 671 rooms and 28 suites, bringing the hotel's room inventory to 2,334 in four towers. Construction began in March; the casino expansion will be done soon, and the remainder of the work should be completed by the end of 1997.

MGM Grand: The Yellow Brick Road and the Emerald City/Oz theme of Las Vegas' biggest hotel will be replaced by a 1930s kind of movie elegance, said Jack Leone, the hotel's vice president of communications. A $250 million master plan calls for renovation of the 112-acre property that will include a new liquid-gold-colored lion rising more than six stories, new themed restaurants and nightclubs (one a reconstructed Brown Derby), themed shops, parking for 11,000 vehicles, a convention center and more adventure theme park rides.

``We're phasing into a city-of-entertainment theme,'' Leone said. ``It's going to have a Hollywood look - kleig lights, our food court in a Farmer's Market-type setting. The facades of our restaurants will look like movie sets.'' Much of the work is now under way, with more to follow through 1997.

Luxor: The 2,526-room, pyramid-shaped hotel with an Egyptian theme has added two more pyramids - both with a stepped Mexican design - that opened this month as part of a $240 million expansion project. The new 22-story pyramids, built between the existing pyramid and the Excalibur, add 1,948 new guest rooms, including 238 suites.

In January, the Luxor will add a new retail mall with 18 shops, said hotel spokeswoman Kristi McElyea. In February, 17,000 square feet of convention and meeting space will open. And in June, the hotel will add two new restaurants plus a 1,200-seat showroom. The River Nile cruise inside the original pyramid will be replaced by a new, multimillion-dollar water attraction; a new IMAX theater opened earlier this month. Also on the drawing board are plans for a wedding chapel and a 12,000-square-foot spa.

The Orleans: A mile west of the Strip on Tropicana Avenue, this New Orleans-themed hotel opened earlier this month with a fireworks-and-music show. The 840-room hostelry has five restaurants (some featuring New Orleans/Cajun specialties), 40,000 square feet of convention and meeting area, a wedding chapel, 92,000 square feet of casino space, an 827-seat Branson-style theater and a 70-lane bowling center, said spokswoman Sally Gaughan. Room rates range from $69 midweek to $89 weekends.

Rio Suite Hotel and Casino: Set to open Feb. 7, the hotel's $200 million, Carnaval-themed Masquerade Village includes restaurants, entertainment, shopping and gaming, all beneath a Masquerade Show in the Sky, three 12-minute parades of colorful floats suspended from the ceiling. Each float will carry 36 dancers, musicians, aerialists and costumed stiltwalkers; visitors also can take a ride aloft. Also included are a 1,015-suite expansion, six new restaurants and 17 performing areas (including two that rise from the casino floor).

Outtakes

If it seems like the hotels in Las Vegas are getting bigger and bigger, you're right on the money. According to the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau, the glittering city in the desert is now home to 13 of the 17 biggest hotels in the world.

The world's biggest hotel? It's the Ambassador City Jomtlen in Thailand, with 5,100 rooms. Of the world's top 20 largest hotels, here's how Vegas' megahotels rank:

2. MGM Grand, Las Vegas; 5,005 rooms.

3. Excalibur, Las Vegas; 4,032 rooms.

4. Flamingo Hilton, Las Vegas; 3,642 rooms.

5. Las Vegas Hilton, Las Vegas; 3,174 rooms.

6. The Mirage, Las Vegas; 3,049 rooms.

7. Monte Carlo, Las Vegas; 3,014 rooms.

8. Treasure Island, Las Vegas; 2,900 rooms.

9. Bally's, Las Vegas; 2,814 rooms.

10. Circus Circus, Las Vegas; 2,793 rooms.

11. Imperial Palace, Las Vegas; 2,636 rooms.

12. Luxor, Las Vegas; 2,526 rooms.

14. Stardust, Las Vegas; 2,335 rooms.

17. Riviera, Las Vegas; 2,109 rooms.

Outtakes

While many construction projects are in the works in Las Vegas, others are still in the planning - or dreaming - stages. Among them:

Orion Casino Corp. is considering development of a $1 billion casino, hotel and entertainment complex called Starship Orion, with a futuristic space theme, on the site of the old El Rancho Hotel on the Strip.

Hilton Hotels Corp. and BET Holdings Inc. are exploring the feasibility of a resort that targets the 2.2 million African-Americans who visit Vegas annually.

Preliminary plans are for a $275 million, music-driven theme hotel with 1,000 rooms, a casino and amphitheater to host shows that will be televised on the BET cable network.

ITT Corp. has undertaken a $900 million expansion of Caesars Palace and a $228 million expansion of the Desert Inn, both on the Strip. Completion of both projects is tentatively scheduled for 1998.

In neighboring Henderson, Sunset Station Hotel & Casino, a $160 million project, is under construction and set to open in summer 1997.

And on the north shore of Lake Las Vegas (near Lake Mead) in Henderson, Hyatt Hotels Corp. and Transcontinental Properties Inc. will build a 500-room, $150 million hotel/casino, set to open in 1998.

Other new attractions in Vegas include:

The Stratosphere, which opened less than a year ago, has retooled its Let It Ride High Roller roller coaster, which zooms around more than 100 stories above the Strip, to be longer and faster. But all is not well with the hotel corporation, which recently missed a mortgage payment and is expected to file for bankruptcy soon.

Main Street Station Casino, Brewery & Hotel opened under new ownership in late November downtown, featuring a $45 million renovation that includes a microbrewery and brewpub. A new promenade lined with turn-of-the-century railroad cars and other train memorabilia links the hotel with the Fremont Street Experience light show and pedestrian walkway.

The Las Vegas Hilton has just opened a $12 million VIP baccarat facility for high-rollers with crystal chandeliers, hand-woven silk wall coverings, and velvet-covered furnishings.

The MGM Grand recently opened a new 25-story attraction called the SkyScreamer that launches riders into a 100-foot free fall from the top of a 220-foot-tall tower, then into a 70 mph swing.

The 40-foot-tall neon cowboy that welcomed visitors to the Hacienda hotel has been relocated downtown to Fremont Street, between the Strip and Fourth Street, and is the first of many such signs that will be displayed in a fledgling neon museum.

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos, 2 Boxes

Photo: (1--Color) The Big Apple skyline rises above the Nevada desert as New York-New York prepares to open, ushering in a new wave of hotel construction.

Frecerick R. Stocker

(2--Color) Oz and the Emerald City will be replaced by a new 1930s movie theme at the MGM Grand, including kleig lights and a re-creation of the Brown Derby restaurant.

(3--Color) Bellagio, named after an Italian lake village, will rise above a meandering 12-acre lake that will be home to a water-jet ballet.

(4) A sleek glass facade will replace Harrah's showboat-themed exterior

Box: (1) Outtakes (See Text)

(2) Outtakes (See Text)