Vacation Village was a small (315-room) locals hotel-casino on a large lot (25 acres) at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip. It opened in 1990 and had a nice run throughout the decade, with frequent appearances in the Las Vegas Advisor’s Top Ten, but by the end of the ‘90s, it was in financial trouble. In December 2000, Vacation Village filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, shortly after defaulting on a one-year $19 million bailout loan. The casino remained open.
In 2000, the hotel-casino cut a deal to join the Holiday Inn chain, but that never happened.
In January 2002, VV was sold out of bankruptcy for $17.8 million to Shawn Scott, a young local speculator who specialized in buying up small distressed casino properties, closing them, and holding them till he could flip them for a tidy profit. True to form, Scott quickly closed the casino, then sat on it for a couple of years before selling it to Florida-based Turnberry Associates and a local developer, Centra Properties, in February 2004. The companies announced plans to develop a "super regional lifestyle center" called Town Square, complete with retail shops, a 20-screen theater, restaurant row and farmer's market, along 180,000 square feet of prime office space and a 200-room high-end boutique hotel.
