If history is any guide, we'd advise you not to get your hopes up. But before we get into specifics, we'd like to make a clarification. Speed: The Ride was never meant to be part of the now-abandoned SkyVue project, although it did end up as part of the somewhat desolate landscape around that far south-Strip neck of the woods. Instead, it was purchased with the intent of being one of the signature attractions of the projected Akita Retail & Events Center, at 3999 S. Las Vegas Blvd. The acquisition was announced on Breslin Builders' blog on Dec. 28, 2011. Approval of the development was projected for mid-January 2012, although – the workings of local government being what they are – that timeline was eventually extended to April.
The roller coaster was to wrap around the Akita Center, with its 224-foot mast up front and the vertical loop – where Speed made its signature midair stop and reversal -- to the rear of the site. "Working with Premiere Rides (the original coaster designer and installer), the existing coaster will be relocated and reused as much as possible, with the mid-section being redesigned to work within and over the existing site and parking lot conditions, and allow for new and exciting curves and bends to be added to the ride," wrote Breslin's Todd McBrayer.
Enclosed within the course of the ride would be a 26,000-square-foot nightclub, a joint venture with local radio station for KVEG-FM, which broadcasts out of the back of the existing Akita Retail Center. An extant Panda Express would be incorporated into the development, a joint project of Breslin Builders and Chetak Development (which hangs its shingle in a local law office). This wasn't to be any old nightclub: not only would it double as a concert venue, but it would also feature a tightrope walker and have an art gallery on its roof. According to the Las Vegas Sun, KVEG's plans for the site included "celebrity basketball tournaments or meet-and-greets with the musicians on their playlists."
Breslin dismantled and removed Speed: The Ride from the Sahara in April 2012, almost a year after the venerable casino closed, to be partially demolished and resurrected as SLS Las Vegas. Once the dismantled coaster had been trucked to the Akita Center, that was the basically the last anyone ever heard of it. The Akita Events Center progressed no farther than some handsome renderings on the Breslin Web site, as the company moved on to more successful projects, in downtown Las Vegas, most notably the Downtown Grand casino-hotel, the whimsical Container Park, and theatrical venue Inspire.
Aerial surveys of the site yielded only overhead views of Panda Express and a McDonalds. No Akita Center development was evident. There is, however, a Chetak-owned parcel slightly to the east which is full of what reveal themselves to be – upon enlargement of the image – sections of Speed: The Ride. Most have a slight curvature and the mast can be seen, lying on its side, in the northeast corner. The blog "Vital Vegas" took a field trip to the site in 2013 and photographed bits and pieces of Speed, awaiting reassembly – a situation that has not changed in the ensuing two and a half years. Given the amount of time those components have been lying exposed to the elements – four years – one has to wonder how much remediation would be needed to get them into working order.
(Attempts to contact Chetak Development and Breslin Builders were unsuccessful.)
