Planning a meeting in Las Vegas or attending a convention in Las Vegas and having to organize satellite events?
| Las Vegas: The Heart of Hospitality |
Also drawing visitors to the area is the 18b Arts District, an area around Main Street and Charleston Boulevard that is home to a mix of residential properties as well as art galleries, studios and stores. A popular community event held here is the First Friday Festival, which showcases local art, food, music and other performances once a month.
The brand-new Downtown3rd area is being developed by Fifth Street Gaming as Las Vegas’s newest metropolitan center. Quickly spreading across five city blocks in downtown, it is destined to become an authentic pedestrian destination and home to more than 18 restaurants and bars, the Mob Museum, a permanent indoor Farmers’ Market and the Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino (formerly the Lady Luck Hotel & Casino).
The Fremont Street Casino District is where you’ll find most of the downtown’s hotels and casinos—many of them original ones from before the surge of the Las Vegas Strip. Featuring several historic hotel casinos in an urban setting, the district offers a more intimate and vintage Las Vegas experience compared to the commercialized Strip. The most notable and popular feature of this district is the Fremont Street Experience, a canopied five-block portion of the street that was made into a pedestrian mall in 2004 with direct access to many of the casinos. With the world’s largest audiovisual system made up of more than 12.5 million LED lights and a state-of-the-art sound system, the $17-million Viva Vision! lightshow attraction provides entertainment in itself as the ultimate in multisensory entertainment and a backdrop for the area’s exciting special events, cuisine and entertainment throughout the year.
Also seeing a lot of redevelopment in the downtown area is a three-block part of Fremont Street just east of the Fremont Street Experience aptly called Fremont East. In 2007, the city collaborated with property and business owners to implement a $5.5-million streetscape improvement of the area that features a pedestrian-friendly street redesign, a mix of bars, clubs and restaurants, landscaping and retro-looking neon signage.
In response to all of this upward development in Downtown Las Vegas, most of the hotels either have been overhauled and rebranded completely in an effort to update them or they have undergone or are undergoing major renovations and refurbishments to keep up with the new energy being injected into the area.
As described in detail in the previous section, the Lady Luck Hotel & Casino is becoming the new Downtown Grand Casino & Hotel by 2014, the former Fitzgeralds Casino & Hotel has already reopened as the D Las Vegas and the age-old Golden Gate Hotel & Casino has just completed its first expansion and major renovation of the property in more than 50 years.
The redevelopment of the properties all over the area has been going on for quite some time, starting largely with the Fremont Hotel & Casino—with its resortwide renovation in 2005–06 and a casino remodel in 2007—and the Golden Nugget, which since 2005 has undergone $300 million in propertywide renovations and expansions. The property has added new restaurants, retail shops, a world-renowned $30-million pool and shark aquarium called The Tank and the sleek $150-million 500-room Rush Tower, which opened in November 2009 with a Chart House restaurant and a beautiful pool called The Hideout.
Also in 2009 came renovations at the Four Queens, which has been faithfully updated every few years since the turn of the century, as well as the Gold Spike, which had an extensive retool with a renovation of the casino floor from top to bottom and the addition of the Golden Grille restaurant. The Gold Spike capped off its improvements with exterior renovations and a union with the Travel Inn to form a single property with 170 rooms. In addition, the El Cortez Hotel & Casino opened up the boutique-style Cabana Suites and overhauled its entire property with a $25-million investment that updated the hotel, added a nightclub and new swimming pool and revamped the restaurants among other improvements.
Since then, Main Street Station was renovated in 2010, and the Plaza Hotel & Casino reopened in September 2011 after a yearlong closure for a $35-million renovation of the casino, restaurants and more than 1,000 guestrooms. As for the other hotels in the area, plans are in the works for theme changes as is general refreshing at the Las Vegas Club Hotel & Casino.
Still, not everything has been regenerated in the downtown area just yet. The Western Hotel and Casino was closed in January 2012 for an indefinite period of time while redevelopment plans are reviewed; and although the casino still remains active, the 366-room hotel part of Binion’s Gambling Hall Hotel & Casino closed in 2009 with no current plans to renovate and reopen. But who knows, maybe these ones, too, will follow the trend to bring youth to the old-time buffed and polished jewel that is Downtown Las Vegas.
The brand-new Downtown3rd area is being developed by Fifth Street Gaming as Las Vegas’s newest metropolitan center. Quickly spreading across five city blocks in downtown, it is destined to become an authentic pedestrian destination and home to more than 18 restaurants and bars, the Mob Museum, a permanent indoor Farmers’ Market and the Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino (formerly the Lady Luck Hotel & Casino).
The Fremont Street Casino District is where you’ll find most of the downtown’s hotels and casinos—many of them original ones from before the surge of the Las Vegas Strip. Featuring several historic hotel casinos in an urban setting, the district offers a more intimate and vintage Las Vegas experience compared to the commercialized Strip. The most notable and popular feature of this district is the Fremont Street Experience, a canopied five-block portion of the street that was made into a pedestrian mall in 2004 with direct access to many of the casinos. With the world’s largest audiovisual system made up of more than 12.5 million LED lights and a state-of-the-art sound system, the $17-million Viva Vision! lightshow attraction provides entertainment in itself as the ultimate in multisensory entertainment and a backdrop for the area’s exciting special events, cuisine and entertainment throughout the year.
Also seeing a lot of redevelopment in the downtown area is a three-block part of Fremont Street just east of the Fremont Street Experience aptly called Fremont East. In 2007, the city collaborated with property and business owners to implement a $5.5-million streetscape improvement of the area that features a pedestrian-friendly street redesign, a mix of bars, clubs and restaurants, landscaping and retro-looking neon signage.
In response to all of this upward development in Downtown Las Vegas, most of the hotels either have been overhauled and rebranded completely in an effort to update them or they have undergone or are undergoing major renovations and refurbishments to keep up with the new energy being injected into the area.
As described in detail in the previous section, the Lady Luck Hotel & Casino is becoming the new Downtown Grand Casino & Hotel by 2014, the former Fitzgeralds Casino & Hotel has already reopened as the D Las Vegas and the age-old Golden Gate Hotel & Casino has just completed its first expansion and major renovation of the property in more than 50 years.
The redevelopment of the properties all over the area has been going on for quite some time, starting largely with the Fremont Hotel & Casino—with its resortwide renovation in 2005–06 and a casino remodel in 2007—and the Golden Nugget, which since 2005 has undergone $300 million in propertywide renovations and expansions. The property has added new restaurants, retail shops, a world-renowned $30-million pool and shark aquarium called The Tank and the sleek $150-million 500-room Rush Tower, which opened in November 2009 with a Chart House restaurant and a beautiful pool called The Hideout.
Also in 2009 came renovations at the Four Queens, which has been faithfully updated every few years since the turn of the century, as well as the Gold Spike, which had an extensive retool with a renovation of the casino floor from top to bottom and the addition of the Golden Grille restaurant. The Gold Spike capped off its improvements with exterior renovations and a union with the Travel Inn to form a single property with 170 rooms. In addition, the El Cortez Hotel & Casino opened up the boutique-style Cabana Suites and overhauled its entire property with a $25-million investment that updated the hotel, added a nightclub and new swimming pool and revamped the restaurants among other improvements.
Since then, Main Street Station was renovated in 2010, and the Plaza Hotel & Casino reopened in September 2011 after a yearlong closure for a $35-million renovation of the casino, restaurants and more than 1,000 guestrooms. As for the other hotels in the area, plans are in the works for theme changes as is general refreshing at the Las Vegas Club Hotel & Casino.
Still, not everything has been regenerated in the downtown area just yet. The Western Hotel and Casino was closed in January 2012 for an indefinite period of time while redevelopment plans are reviewed; and although the casino still remains active, the 366-room hotel part of Binion’s Gambling Hall Hotel & Casino closed in 2009 with no current plans to renovate and reopen. But who knows, maybe these ones, too, will follow the trend to bring youth to the old-time buffed and polished jewel that is Downtown Las Vegas.
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