NEVADA RESORT PLAN PUTS GAMBOLING ABOVE GAMING.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Daily News Staff Writer

Developer Henry Gluck and his partners are betting about $5 billion they can turn some scrub land 20 minutes off the Las Vegas Strip into a desert resort.

Right out of the gate, they have some stunning desert scenery working for them, as well as Bel-Air resident Gluck's feel for what works in southern Nevada, where geographic transplants are becoming the norm.

Gluck is the former chairman of Caesars World Inc. He helped build the Strip into a gambling mecca and helped turn Caesars Palace into a world-class shopping destination.

So he sees no reason why Las Vegas shouldn't have a destination resort like those found in Palm Springs, Scottsdale, Ariz., and Hawaii.

``All of Las Vegas, and I mean this in a good way, is like a Fellini film,'' Gluck said Tuesday shortly after Hyatt Hotels Corp. unveiled plans for a very un-Vegas-like resort at Lake Las Vegas that will open in about 20 months.

The project - a 2,245-acre residential and resort community built around a 320-acre lake - was put together by Santa Barbara-based Transcontinental Properties Inc., of which Gluck is co-chairman.

Transcontinental executives believe they can have a peaceful, albeit profitable, coexistence with their brethren on the Strip. Gluck, for one, thinks the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas will draw people to Las Vegas who in the past would not consider the city for a vacation.

``We're doing something out here that can't be done on the Strip. They don't have the luxury of saying nobody can build around us,'' he said.

Ronald F. Boeddeker, Transcontinental co-chairman and president, said the company bought the strip of land in the late 1980s, in part because it is surrounded on almost every side by federally protected lands - multi-story hotels won't be closing off the development's views of the desert and mountain landscapes.

Transcontinental is a private company and Boeddeker won't say how much the property cost. But he did say that ``hundreds of millions of dollars'' have been spent on infrastructure.

The fact that relaxation, not gambling, will be the resort's major draw should be a plus, he said.

``It was shocking to us to enter this market and find no representation by the major destination hotels and there is no reason why they should not be here,'' Boeddeker said.

Hyatt's $130 million plan, which includes a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course called Reflection Bay that opens today, features a 496-room Mediterranean-style hotel, meeting rooms, water sports, shopping and a casino.

But the casino was not mentioned once during a briefing on the project. Instead, Hyatt President Douglas G. Geoga focused on the golf course, the land and fact that the resort's buildings will feature two-story windows and a Moorish-style garden.

``If the first three rules of real estate are still location, location, location. I think that Lake Las Vegas has a lot going for it,'' he said.