Very much the latter, we would say.
In the seven years since you moved to Pahrump, we've seen quite a few business startups in downtown. Not all were successful: Insert Coins, a nightclub predicated on video games, didn't last long (velvet ropes and downtown don't mix) and even the beloved Beat coffee shop, opposite the El Cortez, recently bit the dust. But on the whole, new investment has enjoyed the upper hand.
There have been two waves of realty acquisition. One was a big 2005 play by Lichtenstein-based Tamares Group, which bought up a ragbag of parcels held by Jackie Gaughan and Mel Exber, including several casinos. Except for a $20 million renovation of the Plaza Hotel, Tamares never seemed to know what to do with all that property, but it has successfully flipped a number of parcels.
The other prime mover is controversial developer Tony Hsieh. Founder of zappos.com, Hsieh committed $350 million to revitalizing urban Vegas through his Downtown Project, which subsidizes startup businesses. It has turned the former Gold Spike casino (which used to be a somewhat scary place to go) into a trendy hangout; Hsieh's most dramatic achievement was transforming the site of a motel into the Container Park, a mélange of boutiques in converted shipping containers. Its whimsical touches include a 30-foot, fire-spewing, metallic, praying mantis. Although Hsieh is averse to casinos, he and casino developer Andrew Donner have been quietly buying up motels on the east side of downtown, presumably with the intent of converting them to housing for urban professionals.
Other gaming magnates have not been idle. While maverick owner Tilman Fertitta stopped expanding the Golden Nugget in 2009, brothers Derek and Greg Stevens have been keeping Las Vegans excited with new developments since then. In 2011, they bought the moribund Fitzgeralds casino and rebranded it as The D, piquing visitor interest with everything from luxury suites to dancing bartenders to an area devoted to vintage gambling machines. Not content to rest upon their laurels, they bought the Golden Gate, downtown's oldest casino and expanded it, without losing its period charm. When Tamares wanted out of the Las Vegas Club earlier this year, after a long and depressing decline, the Stevens brothers snapped it up, along with the nearby Mermaids and La Bayou micro-casinos, and the Glitter Gulch strip club. They're in the process of demolishing the smaller properties and conceptualizing what they're going to do with all that real estate, but suffice it to say that expectations are running high.
Another positive casino development that has flown somewhat under the radar is 2013's reinvention of the Lady Luck as the Downtown Grand. We say "under the radar" because being two blocks off Fremont Street translates into a lack of foot traffic, causing a number of amenities -- like a walk-up betting window -- to close. However, Downtown Grand executives have been thinking outside the box, installing a permanent lounge for e-sports (a major new trend among the younger set) and being the first Las Vegas casino to adopt skill-based slots.
Yes, the homeless are a problem, but one that you can find all over Las Vegas, in almost any neighborhood, And, yes, there are still too many empty storefronts in the urban core. But there are more positive harbingers than negative ones, whether it's the Smith Center for the Performing Arts providing a critical mass of entertainment that gives Las Vegans something to do downtown besides gamble and report for jury duty or whether it's Village Pubs venturing into the Arts Corridor to open its latest restaurant.
And not all the manifestations of change are grandiose: VFW Post 1753, long abandoned, has recently been reborn as an "arts incubator," and impresarios Alison Chambers and Steve Franklin already have one tenant, Vegas Theatre Hub. Another entrepreneur, Troy Heard, up and left the pricey Onyx Theatre on Sahara Avenue to open Majestic Theatre Troupe in a downtown storefront. So there's a lot happening. You just have to know where to look. When it comes to downtown -- after experiencing many years of stasis -- we definitely see growth and think you have plenty of cause for optimism. We do.
