Why is there nothing across the strip from Luxor and Mandalay Bay? It’s just parking lots and one-star motels. You would think that with the amount of money being thrown around, any obstacle would be surmountable, so it’s a mystery to me.
Another Vegas question: what did they tear down to get all the space for the new City Center that’s under construction? Because that is a HUGE lot.
My speculation would be a variant of punctuated equilibrium – until relatively recently, the Strip was kind of stagnant. You might as well ask how the Desert Inn, or Frontier, could have been allowed to stand as long as they were.
These projects are big, and financing for them is not likely to be forthcoming in the present climate.
Final speculation: Luxor and Mandalay Bay are kind of South-ish on the Strip. Traditionally, people did not want to go that far South (N.B. that the cheesy Excalibur has held out as long as it has because of this relative unpopularity of that area).
I think Huerta’s two reasons combine to form an excellect explanation. If you’ve ever toured the Strip, the Luxor and, especially, Mandalay Bay are really far down, and a lot of people don’t go there unless they have a reason to. The stretch between Treasure Island and the Aladdin compressed more casinos into a smaller space and is, consequently, where most of the action is.
If you look at the north end it’s the same; it’s not all filled in with supercasinos, because it’s not the center of the action.
I was just in Vegas this last weekend, and that is one mind-bogglingly huge project. They tore down the Boardwalk Hotel and Casino, a parking lot and a bunch of low end strip malls.
On the other hand, the destruction of the Boardwalk meant the end of the Surf Buffet, the most awful buffet in Vegas - worse then the old Luxor buffet, and the Kitchen at Bally’s - the 777 buffet at the Plaza may be worse, but I’m not that brave. I’ll stick with the Paradise when downtown.
Well, from my suite at the Mandalay Bay*, I was looking across at the airport. Maybe nobody wanted to build that close to the airport?
*Boy, that makes me sound like a high roller, huh?
If memory serves correct, that land was owned by Union Pacific railroad and was
purchased from them for that purpose. I believe the county also sold some of the land to private devolopers for mall space and a furniture store of some kind. There are also large tents erected on the property for convention use, for the same furniture outlet.
I’d always surmised that south of the Tropicana is too close to the airport for anything too high, making construction too expensive. Real estate is going for $15M - $30M per acre, so being able to build up is very important. However, MGM has a small proposed project directly across from Luxor.
If you think the south end is dead, the north end is far worse. You’ve got the Strat at the top which people only go to once (for 20 minutes) for the tower.* The Sahara is old, dirty and slow. Circus Circus is like the Sahara with kids, and I’ve never been a fan of the Riviera either.
But to balance City Center in the south, the north is building up, too. Fontainebleau is scheduled for 2009 north of the Riviera. The Plaza (2011) is slated to replace the New Frontier. And Echelon Place (2010) is larger than City Center and is replacing the Stardust.
I’d expect to see a few more casinos either go entirely or be completely rebuilt in the next few years. Tropicana is showing it’s age. The Harrah’s area in the center strip - Flamingo, Imperial Palace, Bill’s, Harrah’s, Paris and Bally’s along with the land behind it - could become the next ultra-mega-resort.
FYI - a great site for the current strip along with what’s under construction, approved and proposed is here. (warning - large picture)
That was going to be the plan, until Harrah’s got bought out. The new owners seem to like things the way they are. For now.
Crazy. O’Sheas and IP could seriously benefit from a wrecking ball, especially since they’re still pushing 6-5 multideck blackjack.
I hope Bill’s stays around for a long time to come. That is the easiest hotel to get in and out of. It’s so small it doesn’t take more than a minute to get from front of the casino to back to the elevator. Plus it’s very conveniently located.
Hehe. I had a room in Mandelay Bay this weekend, which prompted this question. It was neat to watch the airport, but the stuff between it and the strip is nothing.
Agreed. I get free rooms from them every couple months, the pit bosses take good care of the customers, and sometimes you just have to have a prime rib at 4 in the morning…
I’ve done some more “research” (reading web pages), and it appears there were some issues with the towers settling a bit much when they were building Mandalay Bay, so the land down at that end may not be great.
Incidentally, Mandalay Bay is in the middle of nowhere, but it replaced a really old casino that was also in the middle of nowhere, the Hacienda.
It could be the Vegas strippers who were lopsided!
I was in Vegas this spring for the first time, and hadn’t realized before that the vintage signs from the old movies (e.g., Vegas Vic) were actually downtown on Fremont Street. When did the shift occur from the Fremont street to the Strip?