Lady Luck Reopening?

The Las Vegas economy must be recovering. Plans have been submitted to remodel and reopen Lady Luck. The downtown property near Fremont Street has been closed since 2006. It was only supposed to be closed for 1 year, but has remained closed and many people predicted that it would never reopen. Mayor Oscar Goodman has been pushing for something to be done with the property.

The plans call for putting a pool and deck atop the casino building, replacing 50 rooms with spa, fitness and meeting facilities, and upgrading the remaining 684 rooms. A pedestrian bridge linking hotel towers across Third Street will also be renovated.

A renovated hotel downtown would be very successful in my opinion. There are probably lots of people (myself included) who would like to stay downtown, but don’t want to stay in an ancient hotel room. Golden Nugget has new rooms in their Rush Tower but they might a little overpriced. If Lady Luck opens with nice new rooms, with a new casino they could do very well.

Adding a pool will also be a great asset. I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think many hotels downtown have pools (I know Golden Nugget has a nice one), so a great resort style pool downtown would be a huge draw.



Source: AP via Reno Gazette-Journal.

KGB: Kerry’s Gourmet Burgers to open at Harrah's

Celebrity chef Kerry Simon is opening a new gourmet burger joint on the Strip at Harrah's. This will be his second restaurant in Vegas, the first being Simon at Palms Place.

Offering more than 156 seats, KGB’s sleek modern design will feature wall coverings based on 1960’s Russian propaganda posters and thematic fixtures will create a hip yet comfortable vibe. At the full service bar, a wide array of vodkas will be offered where customers can utilize the ice bar feature for the perfectly chilled specialty drink. A vodka hostess will engage patrons throughout the evening, pairing burger selections with the ideal vodka cocktail.

The high-end burger has been a popular trend in Las Vegas for a while now. Just off the top of my head I can think of Burger Bar at Mandalay, BLT Burger at the Mirage, Le Burger Brasserie at Paris, Strip Burger at Fashion Show Mall and Burger Joint at Flamingo. It will be interesting to see how many burger places the Strip can support. They might become a little too common, but almost everyone likes a good burger, so maybe they won't be going out of style any time soon.

Source: Hotel Interactive.

Silver State Arena Info Revealed

One of the groups vying to build an arena in Las Vegas now has a website with details of their plans.

The Silver State Arena is proposed to be built on the North Strip between Sahara and the once named Fontainebleau on the former Wet N Wild water park site.

The website looks very professional, and the renderings look pretty good. The drawings remind me of something out of the 70's like the Kingdome, but it also looks futuristic in a way with the glass siding.

The location would definitely welcome any development, but I wonder if an arena would be the best use of that land. If developed this area would generate a ton of foot traffic that would be wasted on an arena that is only in use a few hours a week. I think if I were planning this I would try to incorporate a strip front casino with the arena behind it.

We will have to wait and see if this, or any of the proposed arenas get past the design stage. It seems unlikely with the economic conditions in Vegas.




Check out Silver State Arena for more renderings and information about the proposed arena.

Summer Concert Series at Voodoo Beach

Rio’s VooDoo Beach will host a series of summer concerts through September.

Three dates have been confirmed, and more are expected to be added later:

May 27 - Filter.
July 8 - Hoobastank
August 19 - Crash Kings and Vertical Horizon

Doors are at 5:30pm with the show at 6 and entrance is free with tickets printed from 1079thealternative.com. Ages 21+ only.