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In the movie Ocean's Eleven, George Clooney robbed a casino. Now he is going to build one. Clooney, nightclub owner Rand Gerber, and two real estate companies in Las Vegas will today announce their plans to build a casino, a boutique hotel, and a sprawling condominium project on Harmon Avenue, an area that has become one of the city's most popular development corners. Using the sidewalks on Las Vegas Boulevard, the learning said it would not be a resort for tank tops, shorts and panic-pack crowds that lure volcanoes, pirate ships and lions to strip casinos. "We have a romantic notion of a place where you wear a jacket or dress to go to dinner," said Clooney, 44. "We're going to have a kind of dress code so that you feel like you're walking to a more formal Las Vegas or a classical Monte Carlo casino of another age." Although Clooney will work with experienced developers, joint venture partners Related Las Vegas and Centra Properties, he acknowledged that he has no real expertise in developing sophisticated hotels. However, the actor noted that he has stayed in luxury properties over the years and owned a villa in Italy's Lake Como. "I might be a beginner in this group," Clooney said. "But I'm well aware of what I like in Las Vegas, and it's all about class." The 300-room hotel will be the centerpiece of a $3 billion, 25-acre project on Harmon Avenue just west of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The Spanish-themed Las Ramblas development will take shape in a section of Harmon that will be transformed into a massive investment in high-profile projects. Last week, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and developer Edge Resorts announced plans to build a $1.7 billion hotel and condominium complex on the 21-acre Harmon lot west of Las Ramblas. To the east, Hard Rock is planning $1.2 billion in construction, including 800 condominium hotels, 400 residential buildings, dozens of bungalows, restaurants, and shops. MGM Mirage and Turnberry Associates, located near Harmon, are building 1,727 billion dollar condo hotels. And MGM Mirage, located near Harmon's intersection with the strip, plans a $4.7 billion project city center, with a 4,000-room casino resort, three small hotels, a 550,000-square-foot shopping complex, and 1,650 condominiums. "We're looking at the development of a vertical strip," said Reagan Silver, one of Edge Resort's partners. "More than $10 billion of development is planned for the area." Whether the so-called Harmon Avenue Corridor east of Interstate 15 develops into a full-fledged "strip" has become a contentious issue among Las Vegas' Cognoscentis. But what's clear is that the traditional "strip" bulges up from east to west, said veteran developer Steve Molaskey. "Everything in the area is going to be turned upside down for development," said Mollaski, who is completing plans to build a hotel casino resort on Flamingo Road that will support several of the Harmon Avenue project. This pushed the value of the property along a side street close to Streep to the level of a major property on Las Vegas Boulevard until two years ago, said James Stewart, co-founder of Sentra. For example, his group paid $83.7 million ($3.3 million per acre) to assemble the Las Ramblas parcel in March. Edge Resort assembled the Starwood development parcel from December to March, paying $108.2 million (about $5.1 million per acre) to the property. The announcement of the Las Ramblas project, which will include a hotel, 1,326 condominiums, and 2,764 residential condominiums when the buildings are built, comes amid a boom in the construction of high-rise condominiums in Las Vegas. The hotel will be built as part of one of the condo towers. The building and three towers in Las Ramblas are scheduled to open in 2008. Although some of the town's developers have cut sweet deals with Hollywood celebrities for units in their high-rise condo projects, Clooney and Gerber say they are "significant investors" in the development of Las Ramblas. Stewart said their promises amount to "tens of millions of dollars," but none of the parties provided further details. In addition, Stewart said, the pair play an active role in design and business decisions. The idea of actually owning a casino came from a conversation between Clooney and Gerber while staying at Bellagio, which filmed "Ocean's Eleven," which was released in 2001. Clooney said her friends thought it would be "cool" to own something like Bellagio, which is much smaller and tailored to their tastes. Friends prepared the presentation and spoke with the Las Vegas Sands Company, the owner of the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, and the second unnamed casino company. "Everyone was interested, but it seemed like our hotel would end up with just 4,000-room resort amenities. It really wouldn't be ours," said Gerber, who developed the whiskey bar's night spot chain with his brother Scott. But Gerber knew some of the executives involved because he worked at the Time Warner Center in New York, where he owned Stone Rose bar. "I'm just calling them in because they're going to come into the bar," said Gerber, husband of model Cindy Crawford. It was revealed that Related was working on a Las Vegas project, and after months of negotiations, Clooney and Gerber signed the deal. The two believed that the Related-Centra venture would give them more freedom to shape their vision of what a five-star Las Vegas hotel and casino would look like. "I don't know if I'll make 10 cents from this. I could lose my shirt," Clooney said. "But it's going to be a big adventure."