LAS VEGAS - In 1997 when South Florida developer Jeffrey Soffer said he wanted to build high-rise condominiums near the bright lights and neon of the Strip, many locals took a dim view.

With massive hotels and sprawling casinos dominating the famous stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, most developers had long concluded there is little demand for condos in the heart of Sin City: Average visits to Las Vegas are short and hotel rooms often come at reduced rates.

''There were zero high-rise condos in Las Vegas then,'' said Soffer, principal at Aventura-based Turnberry Associates. 'A local guy had planned to build an 80-unit condo. When I bought this 15-acre parcel to build four high-rise condos, he said, `How deep do you think the market is?' ''

Seven years later, Soffer has an answer: more than $1.3 billion in condo sales and counting.

Today, more than 50 high-rise projects have been announced by developers betting the Las Vegas condo market is ready to explode. The incipient boom shares many of the same giddy growth predictions -- and concerns about overbuilding -- with the real estate surge that has made South Florida one of the nation's hottest condo markets.

It also shares many of the same people.

WESTWARD BOUND

The developers currently reshaping South Florida's skyline are now flocking to Las Vegas. The aim: score big on a condo market that may become as frenzied as in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Soffer's Turnberry Associates is following up its pioneering success in Las Vegas with a range of new development plans. Jorge Perez's Related Group of Florida, Miami Beach-based WSG Development, Ian Bruce Eichner and Hollywood-based SunVest Communities all have projects underway. Edgardo DeFortuna's Fortune International in Miami is performing due diligence on a parcel along the Strip; several other Miami developers are rumored to be looking.

''Over the last 10 years, the leading condo market has been Miami,'' said Perez, Florida's most prolific condo developer. ``We're now trying to bring everything we've learned to Las Vegas.''

OFFICES IN VEGAS

South Florida-based real estate brokerages like Jeff Morr's Majestic Properties in Miami Beach and International Sales Group in Aventura also are selling condo projects in Las Vegas. Morr plans to open a Majestic Properties office in Las Vegas sometime next year.

They are moving into a market where the concept of a stand-alone high-rise condo remains unproven on a large scale. Some contend that successful condo developments, particularly those off the Strip, need a hotel component or amenities like shopping, entertainment or gambling.

Eichner is one of those skeptics. ''People are coming here basically to have an experience,'' he said.

Las Vegas has a long and sometimes infamous list of builders and investors who have arrived in the city with successively bigger and more grandiose plans. Bugsy Siegel, Howard Hughes, Kirk Kerkorian and Steve Wynn rank among the titans who have made an indelible mark on the city.

''Almost everyone who has come to Las Vegas to build has come from someplace else,'' said Las Vegas real estate and media magnate Brian Greenspun, whose family has lived in Las Vegas for more than five decades.

``We have watched this for 50 years. It is just different kinds of developers. Some are hotel and casino developers, some are home developers. Now they are high-rise developers.''

The conditions underlying Las Vegas' high-rise condo rush are eerily similar to South Florida's. Sprawling suburban development is beginning to cause a shortage of developable land, chronic traffic problems are whetting an appetite for urban living, and the prices of single-family homes are skyrocketing.

SITES AVAILABLE

At the same time, urban sites available for high-rise condo development are in ample supply. And, with the exception of Turnberry Place, there are virtually no high-rise condos in Las Vegas, creating a void in the market.

Meanwhile, people continue to stream into Las Vegas. From 1990 to 2000, the population of Clark County -- where Las Vegas is located -- jumped by 85.5 percent, according to the U.S. census.

Developers point to other similarities: Like Miami, Las Vegas is considered a likely destination for second-home buyers or retirees because of its warm climate and evolution from a gambling-only destination to an attraction with a wide array of restaurants, shopping and entertainment.

SIMILARITIES

Like Florida, Nevada has no state income tax. And just as New York is a relatively short airplane flight away, the massive Los Angeles market is on Las Vegas' doorstep.

South Florida developers who have made a killing selling to wealthy Latin Americans think high-end buyers in Bogotá and Caracas will have an equal affinity for Las Vegas condos. If not, some developers predict the Asian market is ripe to be exploited.

''Sites in Miami are getting more difficult to obtain and prices are very high,'' DeFortuna said. ``From our point of view, the Las Vegas buyer is very similar to the one buying in Miami. With our network of foreign brokers, that type of buyer could potentially buy a second home in Las Vegas.''

POPULAR MAYOR

Energizing the skyward push is Las Vegas' enormously popular mayor, Oscar B. Goodman. A former defense lawyer for alleged mobsters, Goodman was reelected last year with 86 percent of the vote and enthusiastically asserts that Las Vegas' longtime horizontal growth must go vertical.

Goodman contends high-rise condo development could ease Las Vegas' systemic water problems because it will not create new lawns to water. He claims Las Vegas' highway gridlock will slacken with people living in urban areas, and air quality will improve with fewer cars on the road. He adds that urban areas often have a ''certain intellectual quality'' he deems attractive.

''It's the Manhattanization of Las Vegas,'' Goodman said. ``We're in a valley and there is a limited amount of land for development. Rather than continuing to go out into the desert, we're going up into the sky.''

Such proclamations are prompting South Florida developers to pounce. In some cases, they're working on Las Vegas' most significant projects (see graphic on page 23).

Among Perez' six working Las Vegas projects: two 42-story condo towers called ICON and a 62-acre mixed-use development modeled after West Palm Beach's City Place Goodman predicts will be the ''heart and soul'' of Las Vegas.

Goodman flew to West Palm Beach last month to tour City Place. ''There was no monotony in the architecture. I loved the feel of it,'' the mayor said.

For his planned hotel and condo-hotel, Eichnerenvisions a $1.5 billion project including a casino, 150,000-square-foot convention center and 300,000 square feet of retail space.

In addition to a fourth Turnberry Place tower, Soffer plans two 45-story condo buildings nearby called Turnberry Towers. Soffer also plans three -- and perhaps more -- high-rise condo-hotels at the MGM Grand Hotel that, if completed, will be the first condo-hotel high-rise towers on The Strip.

QUICK DECISION

DeFortuna's Fortune International has 30 days to decide if he will buy a three-acre lot across from the Mandalay Bay Hotel on the Strip. He wants to build a 350-unit 30 story condo-hotel.

Yet many caution that the translation from South Florida to Las Vegas may not be easy and that the very same questions confronting developers in Florida are present in the southern Nevada city.

Chiefly: is too much being built too quickly? Some Las Vegas observers worry that if a significant amount of the proposed condos are built, supply will outstrip demand.

Meanwhile, construction is a different animal in Las Vegas. Unlike Florida, Las Vegas is union-controlled, driving up labor costs. And with the casinos undertaking multibillion-dollar developments, a developer constructing a $150 million condo project can find it difficult to get quality labor.

Last month, for instance, MGM Mirage announced plans to spend $4 billion building a 66-acre mixed-use development on the Strip predicted to be the most expensive project in the country. Called Project CityCenter, such a job could gobble up skilled workers for several years.

Building requirements are also different.

''In Florida we build with a lot of weight in the building because of hurricanes,'' said developer Tom Daly, Perez's partner. ``But here in Vegas you don't build heavy because of earthquakes. In Florida you have to worry about mold and humidity. Here in Vegas you don't.''

INVESTORS' SUPPORT?

Perhaps the biggest question mark in Las Vegas is whether there are investors to support condo high-rise development. While developers almost universally assert they are selling to residents, the majority of pre-construction condo units are sold to investors, who later sell to people that will live in the units.

Since builders must sell pre-construction units to qualify for a loan, investors effectively finance many of the condos going up in South Florida.

''The combination of the national economy and this hot housing market have made condominium investment a very popular choice for people who don't want to put money into stocks and bonds,'' said Philip J. Spiegelman, president and principal at International Sales Group. ``The question is if Las Vegas will develop that kind of following.''

Las Vegas High Rise Condo Map