Tamares mines comedic gold

Nothing says "quality" quite like a Tamares joint.

As the trial dubbed "Plaza Versus Plaza" winds down, Tamares Group — owners of the downtown Plaza — came up with a good one. The Lichtenstein-based company would have jurors believe "that it delayed renovations of the … Plaza because it was paralyzed by the prospect of a hotel by the same name on the Strip."

Haha! Hahahahahahaha! That's rich. Who writes their material? Tamares has had four years to do something with the Plaza and its other downtown holdings and hasn't done anything … unless you count closing a couple of low-rent motels, selling the Gold Spike and yanking some of the gambling options out of places like the Vegas Club.

Tamares hasn't renovated the Plaza because Tamares is too darn cheap to do so and has no apparent downtown strategy beyond continual drift. If anything, Elad Properties' "Plaza" project momentarily lit a fire under Tamares — at least to the extent of spurring the company to hold a development workshop several weeks after Elad's plan became known.

Back in '04, somebody must have sold them on the idea that an assemblage of disconnected, Jackie Gaughan-held parcels would be a great real estate play. Instead, Tamares found itself holding a bunch of old casinos, running successive management teams in and out. It looks like they're stuck downtown and we're stuck with them.

Same condos, new name. The project that was previously reported on here as "Allure II" may actually turn out to be "Q," Steve Friess reports. Or it could turn into nothing at all, as Vegas condo projects are wont to do.