Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Where I Stand:

Fremont Street, circa 2020, is here and now

Circa Resort Media Preview

Christopher DeVargas

A look at the rooftop pool complex at Circa’s Stadium Swim during a media preview of the resort Monday, Oct. 19, 2020.

I should have said circa 2020.

I remember back in 2005 when a friend of mine called to ask me a few questions about downtown Las Vegas. He was thinking about investing in a significant way in the gaming industry, and he wanted to know what I thought about downtown’s future.

I had been watching the steady decline of downtown — with the occasional blips skyward with hotels like the Golden Nugget and the Fitzgerald — and it was no secret that Fremont Street had seen its best days.

So I told my friend what I thought: The smart money is and will continue to build on the Strip. The sleeper play is downtown. But it could take a long time. It could take 10 years or even 20 before an entrepreneur with a vision, some capital and enough confidence in the future comes along and builds the beginning of the new downtown Las Vegas. Until then, it is a wise place to make a bet if you can invest what is needed and hold on for however long it takes for the next great builder to come along.

At that point I should have told my friend that I saw that change coming circa 2020.

But I am not that smart. My friend is, of course, because he made that bet and a few more. And since then, with the seeds planted by Tony Hsieh, the continuing growth of East Fremont and the Arts District, downtown Las Vegas is now on the move.

And that entrepreneur — the one I talked about 15 years ago, the one with the capital, the brains, the imagination and the vision to not only see but to build the resurgence of Fremont Street — is here too.

His name is Derek Stevens. And he, together with his brother Greg, is about to open a most incredible hotel and casino at the very top of Fremont Street.

Yes, where the old Las Vegas Club used to stand for more than 80 years, has grown a brand-new vision of downtown Las Vegas. It is tall, it is modern and it screams everything about the 21st century as it harkens back to the Las Vegas that made this city famous.

It is the vision of an entrepreneur who reminds me of the risk takers and dreamers of yesterday. Names like Bugsy Siegel, Wilbur Clark, Jackie Gaughan, Jay Sarno, Kirk Kerkorian and Steve Wynn come to mind when I think about the men who risked it all on a vision that changed this town when it was small and grew this city as it matured into the entertainment capital of the world.

What Derek Stevens has built is called Circa. And it opens to the public on Wednesday.

That’s this week. In the middle of a pandemic, on a street made famous in the last century and left to flounder for many decades, and with an eye toward a tomorrow that few can yet see but so many will one day say they saw it clearly, Derek Stevens will take the plunge and join the few handsful of dreamers and builders who made Las Vegas the envy of the world.

It is easy to write these words, but it has been so very hard for the Stevens brothers and their team to bring Circa out of the ground and up to the standards of a man who knows exactly what he wants.

And Circa is exactly what Las Vegas needs right about now and what Fremont Street needs well into what should be a much brighter future.

And I believe Circa is just the beginning. Derek Stevens has shown those entrepreneurs on the sidelines the way, so it shouldn’t be that long before another friend asks me what I think about the future of Fremont Street.

I will no longer tell him he has to be able to hold on for 10 to 20 years to see a return. I will tell him something very different.

I will say: Look what Derek built. Follow his lead.

Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.