Question of the Day - 15 February 2026

Hawaiian Marketplace opened in 2007. The south Strip outdoor dining and retail center was clearly built to cater to the mega-popularity of Las Vegas with Hawaiians. Built at a cost of $175 million, it covered 80,000 square feet and was definitely well situated in terms of foot traffic, in a strategic location just around the corner from where Harmon Avenue intersects with the Las Vegas Strip.

But Hawaiian Marketplace’s fate rested with the issue of the highest and best use of real estate, especially on the Strip. What cut the mustard in 2007 looked pretty low-end and old-hat 15 years later, compared to most of the current retail on the Boulevard.

Even back then, the concept was always somewhat half-baked; we remember visiting it when it opened and scratching our heads as to what it was supposed to be. The jumble of fake palm trees, ethnic restaurants with courtyard seating, and later, even a half-price-ticket booth seemed to us, especially as the years took their further toll, the very definition of urban blight, something you might see in a low-rent shopping district of Manila, Jakarta, or Guayaquil. 

The development itself wasn't nearly as valuable as the land it sat on, especially after Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Golden Nugget, bought the southeast corner of Harmon and the Strip with the intent of building a high-end resort. Fertitta was the rising tide that lifted all boats, including the value of the Hawaiian Marketplace site. Indeed, Hawaiian Marketplace had fallen on such tough times that it sold to Gindi Capital in 2019 for less ($172 million) than it had cost to build a dozen or so years earlier.

Rather than have downmarket dining and retail in the shadow of Fertitta’s shiny new kid on the block, Gindi demolished the complex. Down came the statue of King Kamehameha and up went … well, you saw the basic concept, with more of the same to come. 

Oh, and the Fertitta project has been canceled.