The Friends of Classic Las Vegas
Who knew I was the Relentless Historian? Though I have to admit, I have felt that way for much of the last couple of years.
I love my hometown, I love its history. I want to share the real history with others. Perhaps more importantly, I want the real history documented for the next generation so that the myths stop being prepetuated. Call me crazy, others have.
Cultural Tourism is important. Fremont Street is one of the links to our collective past. Its images are in our DNA. As Fremont Street evolved from Tent City to the Heart of the Community to Glitter Gulch to today's Fremont Street Experience and the coming Fremont East Entertainment District, the evolution of Las Vegas can be charted by the changes on Fremont Street.
Kristen Peterson of the Las Vegas Sun did an article on our hoped for plans to document the evolution of Fremont Street over the last ten decades.
Read the article here: http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/do/2007/jun/29/566659472.html
If you would like to donate to the Friends of Classic Las Vegas or help with our Fremont Street survey, email me at
Lynn@classiclasvegas.com
for more information.
The Final Frontier
Less than twenty-four hours from now, the New Frontier Hotel will close the books and the doors on 64 years of operation. RoadsidePictures and I were there yesterday (Saturday) to pay our respects and take some pictures.
People were prying the room number plates off the doors and the waterfalls and streams in the Atrium Tower had been turned off. The folks around the pool seemed to be having a good time but then it was 109 outside.
Inside, we talked with a guy who had been coming to Vegas for over 40 years and loved the Frontier. He looked so sad and dejected as he told us he was being priced off the Strip. "Rooms at the Palms are $250 a night. I can't afford that. But I could afford a room here."
The Old Vegas is quickly giving way to the New Vegas of luxury hotels and ultra-lounges.
We will the miss the Frontier. Not so much for what she is today but for all that she was over the last 64 years.
Be sure to check out our continuing history of the property at our Brief History of the Las Vegas Strip:
http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/display/ShowJournal?moduleId=1093544¤tPage=4
The sign is much taller than it looks.
The old vs the new
Trump Tower and the Frontier Parking Lot
Special thanks to RoadsidePictures for allowing us to use these images.
Digital World Series of Poker
If Benny Binion wasn't spinning in his grave before, he surely is now with reports that Poker rooms are going digital. One of the great things about poker is the sound of the chips. Add to that the dealers and the flipping of the card and you have one of those sounds that is uniquely old Vegas.
Like so many other landmarks that are falling way too quickly, comes word that the World Series of Poker (started by the afore-mentioned Benny Binion) may go digital in the not to distant future. What does this mean? No chips, no dealers, no cards.
We say, why bother?
The Nevada Gaming Commission recently licensed a company that makes these digtial, electronic devices to do business here in the heart of the gambling world.
The appeal seems to be that without a live dealer more money can be made by the house.
Will the likes of Doyle Brunson and the old school poker players come out to play the new-fangled way? Or is this yet another nail in the coffin of the way Las Vegas used to be?
Read more on this disturbing trend here.
The Gold Spike has been sold
It's a sad day at CheapoVegas. It has been announced that the venerable Gold Spike (home to some of Matt and Stinky's best adventures) has been sold.
Tamares Las Vegas Properties have confirmed a purchase agreement to sell the sagging downtown Gold Spike hotel to a Miami developer for $15.6 million (yes, you read that right- for the Gold Spike!). The developer plans to convert the hotel into a trendy boutique hotel possibly closing as early as September and reopening as an upscale boutique hotel with rooms running $125 to $150 per night.
Now, if you are like me, you are asking yourself, why would I spend $125 to $150 a night to stay downtown when I can stay at the historic Golden Gate or Golden Nugget or other properties for much less?
The Las Vegas Review Journal calls it a "dreary hotel" in the headline.
Gregg Covin, 38, the new owner, plans to visit Las Vegas next week to take a closer look at the Gold Spike (did he buy it sight unseen?????). But he's already confident the Spike's smoky ambience and grungy reputation won't take the shine off his vision.
"Our specialty is taking crack houses and turning them into four-star boutique hotels," Covin said. "I think the Gold Spike is perfect for that."
Has anyone out there stayed in one of his former crack houses turned four-star boutique hotels? Because I would like to give the guy the benefit of the doubt but I have to tell you, it ain't easy.
In the short-term, Covin said he would retain the management company Navegante Group (because they are doing such a great job????) as managers of the Gold Spike. He also said he plans to keep the property operating while it undergoes renovation. "I'll probably keep it partially open for awhile," said Covin of the property, which has specials such as $1 for a shot of tequila or can of Tecate beer with salt and lime and $27.50 a night room rates during the week. "It will stay as is until I am ready for the grand reopening," he said. But according to Covin, the new hotel will bear little resemblance to the current Spike. For the extra $100 a night for a room, it better be the most comfortable place to stay and the best place to gamble downtown. Covin envisions drastic upgrades to the hotel's approximately 107 rooms, a hipper casino and a minispa at the one-acre property. I don't even want to think where they would put a spa in this place.
Covin said the Spike would ultimately get a new management team of his choosing (duh!). Larry Woolf of the Navegante Group said when that happens, the property's estimated 140 employees would have opportunities at other casinos (are we taking bets??) "We would place them where we have room I'm sure," Woolf said. "It would be quite some time before we have to address that." The Gold Spike would be Covin's first project in Nevada. But it would be far from his first reclamation of a rundown hotel. He seems to have a history in Miami. Unfortunately, what works in Miami may not work in downtown Las Vegas which has long had a reputation for doing things their own way. If he does take ownership it would likely be in the name of a limited liability company or LLC set up to do business in Nevada, Covin said.
National Golf Course Endangered?
This originally was the Stardust Country Club and Golf Course. Then it became the Sahara Country Club and now it is the Las Vegas National Golf Course. The houses in the neighborhood, known as Paradise Palms, were designed by Palmer and Kreisel. This neighborhood is filled with mid-century modern homes, many of them restored. This is where parts of Casino were filmed as the Neighborhood stepped in to portray the Las Vegas Country Club.
Word comes from our good friend Mark Minelli at Sin City Modern that National Golf Course may be endangered.
If you would like to attend a meeting to find out more here are the details:
There is potentially a pending offer on the approximate 130 acres of the LV National Golf Course. Members of the neighborhood are meeting and getting together to discuss some ideas plus it is a great opportunity for everyone to meet!
WHERE: Las Vegas Country Club Clubhouse (Rotunda Room)
Do not enter the LVCC Estates
WHEN: Wed, July 18th 6:00 p.m.
Please tell the guard that you are there for the Paradise Palms Meeting.
Dress code is enforced at the Club, and they will not allow jeans, or flip flops. Please dress accordingly.
LasVegasLynn
There was another meeting of concerned homeowners, neighbors, Clark County Commissioners and the new owners of the National Golf Course. County Commissioner Chris Guinchigliani was the moderator for the evening and still seems to be supporting the home owners.
The new owner, John Knott, says that he supports the home owners as well. His plans: market the Golf Course to tourists. If this idea does not turn out to be profitable then he will begin to explore the idea of building condos on the Golf Course as way to make the property profitable.
Mr. Knott's background is not in operating profitable Golf Courses but in making big money in real estate investment deals.
The homeowners are exploring their legal options and vow a fight to save their homes.
Will all the Preservation Groups in Las Vegas get behind and support the home owners and neighbors? Or will it be a David vs Goliath fight?
Stay tuned.....
LasVegasLynn
in Preservation Issues
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