Sahara To Close March 23, 2011

And so it has begun.

After 56 years of operation the Sahara casino is to shut its doors this May. A big part of its problem is that it shows every day of those 56 years. It’s more than a little bit run down and it can’t keep up with the younger, flashier and bigger properties on the Strip. Still, the Sahara is one of the great forefathers of the fabled Strip along with the Flamingo, Tropicana, and Caesar’s Palace and it will be mourned. Oh sure it’s not like Vegas isn’t familiar with closing old properties: the Sands, Dunes, Desert Inn, Hacienda, and Stardust were all blown up and cleared off to make room for the New Breed that replaced them. Hell, for a while there it seemed like these things were going off like popcorn. But this time there’s not going to be any new place opening up in that spot. Incidentally, it’s right next to another property on the Strip that is also closed and has been for a few years now. That property was the Holy Cow casino and it was going to be a big, fancy high-end residential high-rise building. Yeah, that’s not going to happen. As I recall some big-name celeb sunk a few million into that project and lost it all (Ben Affleck or Matt Damon I think). Anyway, that’s a pretty big section that’s going to look ugly. Of the other forefathers I mentioned only Caesar’s is holding up well; the Trop & Flamingo aren’t looking so hot these days. A few years back there was talk of the Tropicana closing for a while for a complete renovation, but they didn’t do it and settled for a smaller scale make-over of some areas.

In another area of the strip gaming giant MGM built the gianormous City Center complex. It was stalled for a long time before they went ahead and finished it. I hear that they’re struggling. Off strip the Hard Rock casino is having problems too. They just finished off an expansion right as the recession hit. Off-off-Strip Palace Station casinos cater to the local crowd who tend to avoid the Strip entirely is also having difficulty. They just finished expanding their holdings scattered around the valley a couple of years ago too. The latest was built just a few miles up the road from my house and I read that they are likely to lose that property to their creditors. That area was going to be the next big housing boom spot and they finished just as the housing market collapsed in a big way. It’s a nice place and I love to go to the movies there; I hope that they can keep it open.

Downtown is another kettle of fish. It’s had problems competing with the Strip for a long time, and they’ve tried various things to make it a must-see spot with mixed success I’d say. Still, a one of the bigger ones downtown bowed out of the game a couple of years ago – Binion’s Horseshoe. Lady Luck’s luck dried up a couple before that. It’s not all grim news though – the Golden Nugget went through a big renovation and expansion and it’s gorgeous. It’s doing great business too.

Some of my colleagues think that Vegas’ long-term survival will be as a retirement community and I have to concede that as a possible saver. Boomers are going to start retiring by the millions and a lot of them are going to look to dryer & warmer climes to hang their golf-caps. They can pick up a nice house here pretty cheap now too. I guess there’s that. We can hope that a surging sea of blue hair will float our sinking ship. Or… something like that.