No, there will be no reopening of the Lady Luck anytime soon, although the property known as the Lady Luck since 1968 is due to reopen at some point, with an optimistic possible date of sometime in 2012 having been slated recently for what will be the newly rebranded Downtown Grand.
This won't be the first identity change for what ranks among the more popular of downtown's former and current casinos with our readers, judging by the number of inquiries we've received over the fate of The Lady Luck since it closed in February, 2006. Here's some background.
We've read conflicting histories, but from what we can gather a venue located at 304 Ogden (or was it 206 N. Third Street?), debuted in 1961 as Honest John's, a small newsstand/smoke-shop with approximately 20 slots and a few pinball machines. In 1964, the property was purchased by one Andrew Tompkins, who changed the name to the Lady Luck four years later. (It may have been called the Park Plaza at some interim point, but we've been unable to verify that.)
In 1972, The Lady Luck expanded to take over the whole block as a full-fledged casino with restaurants and shops, although it was another 14 years until the first hotel tower was added. A second tower was added in 1989, at which point the property had more than 30,000 square feet of gaming space, 792 hotel guest rooms, and four restaurants.
Between 2000 and 2007, the Lady Luck changed hands no less than four times, and back in May, 2005 the then owners announced plans for a major renovation and expansion of the property. As referenced above, the property closed the following February ahead of the planned renovations, but then the financing collapsed and the Lady Luck's been sitting dormant ever since, described by former mayor Oscar Goodman as a "rotting corpse."
In June 12, 2007 the casino was purchased by the CIM Group for $20.4 million but it took two years for any action whatsoever, which finally commenced with the razing of a condemned portion of the property. Not much has happened since, aside from an announcement last August of plans to build a pedestrian footbridge linking the property's two towers, followed by news last December of a proposed complete makeover for the old joint, including a new swimming pool, new restaurants, and new shops.
Still, again nothing happened until last week, when suddenly on October 27 came news that the Lady Luck signage was coming down that very morning (as indeed it did), and that the property was to be rebranded as the Downtown Grand, with a tentative opening date of sometime in 2012, perhaps.
As any plans involving the former Lady Luck have been notoriously unforthcoming, we're not holding our breath, but with that formerly rundown part of downtown Las Vegas currently experiencing something of a renaissance, we'll keep our fingers crossed that something finally happens this time around.
