Lots of people were confused by the two "Ice" nightlife venues, which briefly co-existed: Ice Meta_Club (200 E. Harmon Avenue) was open from August 2003 to October 2005, while the Ice House (650 S. Main Street) debuted in 2003 and closed on January 2, 2009.
Anthony Curtis reviewed the latter, to which your question refers, in the September 2003 issue of Las Vegas Advisor in a piece titled "Ice Twice." He described how the Main Street newcomer "has a quieter scene, attracting business people early evenings and a more sophisticated party crowd on the weekends," while noting the the "iced bar (à la MBay’s Red Square), lots of TVs for watching sports, and good food, [plus] a happy hour with dollar domestics and wells and half-price premiums that runs 4-7 pm daily."
What could possibly go wrong? At the time, the General Manager told Las Vegas Weekly that it was pushing five years old and "every club needs to reinvent itself" (echoing the same tune as the management at Ice Meta_Club), before elaborating more candidly: "Times are tough, and it's almost more affordable not to keep it open." The economy was entering its tailspin phase and the Ice House was just a little too much, too soon, for the Downtown business revival that now supports a thriving arts-and-entertainment scene.
The property was placed on the market at the end of 2008 but when there were no takers, eventually the bank foreclosed. The building then sat empty for three-or-so years, when it sold at a trustees sale, for $1 million and change, to a new entity named FC Ice House LLC. Behind FC Ice House was real estate developer Jeffrey Fine -- a former patron of the venue when it was a bar/club -- who moved the offices of Fine Properties into the former restaurant area downstairs. Fine had plans to revive the upper story, but the economy just didn't turn around in time.
Fine went on to become a partner in Fifth Street Gaming, with diverse gaming and entertainment interests downtown and elsewhere, and today we're not even sure if the building is still being used as office space. We can confirm that FC Ice House LLC still holds an active business license, so presumably Fine is just biding his time. It's an awkward location, particularly parking-wise, and currently perhaps is still just a little too out on an limb in that spot to draw the kind of regular foot traffic necessary to support a restaurant/bar/nightclub of that size.
As an aside, there was a third "ice house" in Las Vegas: a real ice house, built downtown in the pre-refrigeration era. Located next to the railroad tracks, it was a four-story building set back from 600 Main St. that was finally boarded up in 1983. Sadly, attempts at historic preservation failed when multiple accidental blazes at the derelict property eventually led to its being demolished; but while the genuine ice house did not quite sit on the same plot as its successor, it did apparently inspire the latter's architecture, we understand.
