STATESIDE Stateside


Sharon Harris looks at regeneration and how goodbye is not always a bad thing


H


In early 2011, Landry’s CEO and owner Tillman Fertitta paid $38 million for the ailing waterfront location, later adding $100 million-plus. Today, Golden Nugget is a profitable gem


ave you ever moved or cleaned out a property? It can be bittersweet to say goodbye to memories built over years.


My parents lived 40 years in my childhood


suburban Philadelphia home. After they passed away, my sister Linda and I faced the daunting clean up. I was amazed at what they had kept, but loved seeing those mementos once again.


Gaming people understand leaving memories behind as skylines within many gaming jurisdictions change over time. Las Vegas is a prime example, as many glamorous hotels of yesteryear now hold a place only in the city’s history and legend. Remember iconic casinos like the Sands, Dunes, Frontier, Desert Inn, Riviera, Circus Circus and several others?


Once past their prime, casino land owners/


developers like Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson, the late Terry Lanni, the Boyds and others had to reshape their futures. Should they spend hundreds of millions in renovations or start fresh from the ground up?


They chose to “go


new” and replaced these properties with showplaces like Bellagio, Wynn, the Venetian and Aria, to name a few. I actually enjoyed a lovely room at the Sands – the current Venetian/Palazzo site –


Image: Guzel Studio/Adobe Stock 8 AUGUST 2017 right before its implosion.


However, new complexes have also stalled. Boyd Gaming’s Echelon in Las Vegas stopped cold after the economic crash, but they at least erected the steel. Others had to scaled back their scope.


Smaller casino operators have sometimes taken a


different path, usually due to costs. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2005, regional operators typically rebuilt, using the shells of their battered casinos. Although they surely made improvements, the bulk stayed intact.


Since the 1990s, Atlantic City casinos have faced similar questions about their obsolete properties. Living here for 17 years, I‘ve witnessed both demolition and development.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58