A piece of Las Vegas' past vanished from the Strip on Tuesday, as workers removed the sign from the old Sahara resort. The sign is being removed as part of a project to transform the Sahara into SLS Las Vegas.
The owners of the shuttered Sahara casino on an aging stretch of the Las Vegas Strip say they're breaking ground on a redevelopment project that will revitalize the resort. Los Angeles-based SBE Entertainment announced Wednesday that it's beginning construction after securing the $400 million needed for the project. The development company says it will reopen the iconic resort that once hosted the likes of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley by fall of 2014.
It’s time for a Las Vegas history test, presented one letter at a time. We picture letters from seven signs on display at the Neon Museum, 770 Las Vegas Blvd. North. The museum is home to more than 150 signs from Las Vegas casinos and other businesses, including hotels, restaurants and wedding chapels. Scroll through these photos to see if you can tell which casinos or hotels these letters came from.
Mike Mixer predicts that upwards of $1.5 billion will be invested in the Las Vegas gaming market over the next two years. Mixer is the head of a new national gaming group established last summer by commercial real estate brokerage Colliers International.
Mio Danilovic was working his way through college at the El Dorado bar in Brentwood, Calif., when he heard about a new nightclub on the Sunset Strip. "I had heard there was this young, ambitious guy who was starting a business that was going to revolutionize the way people go out in Los Angeles," Danilovic said. He walked into Shelter and found owner Sam Nazarian sitting in an office drinking iced coffee. Within five minutes, Danilovic had talked his way into a job working club security.
The north end of the Strip has struggled in recent years with half-finished projects, deteriorating buildings and vacant lots. But developer Ric Truesdell sees big opportunities there. "There hasn't been a new building in this block in a decade," Truesdell said.
Someone had to be first. Some guy in a hut had to have the courage to drink the juice of fermented grapes, and good things followed. Likewise, the north end of the Strip needed someone to have the courage to invest. Now that SBE Entertainment of Los Angeles and private equity group Stockbridge Real Estate are putting money into the shuttered Sahara, perhaps the 20-teens will eventually be known as the era when the action moved north on the Strip.
Rob Oseland heard plenty of skepticism about some of the projects he helped create along the Las Vegas Strip. The Bellagio was too expensive. The Wynn and Encore were too far north, away from the heart of the Strip.
Sam Nazarian’s plan to redevelop and reopen the Sahara hotel-casino is risky for investors in the project’s debt, Standard & Poor’s is cautioning. The debt-rating agency issued a preliminary B- rating to a proposed $300 million term loan for the project.
New details were made public Wednesday on hotelier Sam Nazarian’s plan to redevelop and reopen the closed Sahara hotel-casino on the lonely northern end of the Las Vegas Strip. Debt rating agency Moody’s Investors Service issued a report that confirmed the redeveloped property would be called ''SLS Las Vegas'' and that Nazarian was hoping to reopen it in 2014.
The shuttered Sahara would reopen with a renovated casino floor and 1,622 hotel rooms, but minus its signature roller coaster, under plans unveiled on Wednesday. The plans, presented to the Clark County Commission, end speculation that owners of the 59-year-old building were going to implode it and start from scratch. Commissioners approved use permits to renovate the hotel’s interior, including the casino and 1,622 rooms. Plans also include demolition of the roller coaster.
Four months after the Sahara’s final day of operation, the last remnants of the Rat Pack-era casino are gone. A liquidation sale to empty the 59-year-old resort has ended.
