When Was The Riviera Casino Torn Down
LAS VEGAS (KSNV News3LV) - A Las Vegas icon will soon be torn down. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the new owners of the Riviera, next month will vote on a plan to demolish the. Chuck Bellemore considered building another hotel where his Beach View Inn was torn down due to fire damage, but said it was more cost-effective to build 20 apartments. One of the last remaining mob-era casinos on the Las Vegas Strip will be torn down. The 60-year-old Riviera Hotel and Casino, where Liberace and Frank Sinatra once performed headlining acts, closed at noon on Monday.
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A 60-year-old Las Vegas casino could be torn down to make way for more convention space, according to a report from CNN Money. The Riviera Hotel & Casino, which opened in 1955, is being considered.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – If the ghosts of Frank Sinatra and Liberace were still hanging around the Riviera Hotel and Casino on Monday morning, they wouldn’t have found a seat at the bar.
Crowds squeezed onto barstools and milled about the casino floor saying goodbye to “The Riv,” a classic that spent 60 years on the Las Vegas Strip and closed at noon.
It’s an age reached by few properties along the four-mile stretch of hulking casino resorts mimicking other worldly landmarks or beckoning passers-by with all their wants in one place that have replaced Sin City’s recent past.
The Riviera’s only remaining elder was the often-renovated Flamingo that Bugsy Siegel debuted in 1947. The Tropicana, which opened in 1957, is close behind.
“The amazing thing about Las Vegas is how soon it forgets itself because it keeps reinventing itself,” said Jeff Kutash, the dancer, choreographer and producer who brought the aquatic stage spectacle “Splash” to a Riviera stage for 21 years.
The 60-year-old casino-hotel’s lustre had faded, becoming the place to go for cheap drinks, cheap blackjack and a free photo-op in front with the ladies of topless revue Crazy Girls, posteriors immortalized with a bronze statue of their behinds.
But it wasn’t always that way.
Long before the buns of bronze were loaded onto the back of a pickup truck’s trailer Monday, the Riviera was among the first casinos to make this stretch of desert glitter. Like the others, mob money made sure the lights were always on at the Riviera.
Its star wattage started with bejeweled piano man Liberace, the property’s first headliner, and its marquee eventually included Frank Sinatra, Engelbert Humperdinck, Tony Orlando and Dolly Parton.
Rat Pack member Dean Martin was a part-owner for a short time. Another former owner married frequent Riviera performer and Golden Globe winner Pia Zadora.
The long-running stage show “Splash” brought water, fountains and pyrotechnics to a Las Vegas stage starting in 1985, long before Cirque du Soleil did.
Eventually, the Riviera’s casino became the set for “Casino,” the 1995 movie featuring Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci and based on real-life Las Vegas mobsters Frank Rosenthal and Anthony Spilotro during their 1970s heyday at the Stardust and others.
It served as Hollywood’s hangout for decades, from the Rat Pack in the original 1960 “Ocean’s 11” to the groomsmen of “The Hangover” in 2009.
After Monday, the property’s history, cinematic or otherwise, is bound for rubble. But it’s not clear when it might be levelled or how, either by demolition or the destination’s favoured pastime: implosion.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority bought the 2,075-room building and 26 acres it sits on in February for $182.5 million plus $8.5 million in related transaction costs.
Furniture and fixtures inside the casino-hotel are expected to be auctioned by NCL, National Content Liquidators, starting May 14 until everything is sold.
The publicly-funded tourism agency plans to tear it down and expand the Las Vegas Convention Center to the Strip. The goal is to bring it down before the end of the year, said Heidi Hayes, a spokeswoman for the agency.
Kutash said he plans to watch when the Riviera turns to rubble. “And I’ll be toasting probably a glass of champagne to a memory that was more of a memory. It was a piece of my DNA,” he said.
He returned to the same stage one more time, a first since the show closed in 2006. “It was just a beautiful but ghostly experience,” he said of being on stage again.
The property has struggled in recent years as the recession hobbled Las Vegas and development around it went dormant, deterring walk-in traffic. The property hadn’t reported a profit since it emerged from bankruptcy in 2011.
On Monday, though, the Riviera didn’t go quietly into that good afternoon thanks to a casino soundtrack of music, slot machine sounds, clapping as the clock signalled it was noon and cheers from a group of now former cocktail waitresses who worked the graveyard shift together and spent the property’s last seconds sending a few penny slots spinning.
There were no jackpots, but they screamed every time the machine lit up the word “winner.”
“It was fun. Goodbye Riviera,” said Kelly Hernandez, an 11-year employee at the casino, as she and her family of co-workers walked away from the slot machines toward the exit.
- In The Rumor Mill
- September 11, 2020
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Rumor has it that several Las Vegas hotels are on the chopping block amid revenue decline.
Travel is down globally and Las Vegas has seen a staggering decline in visitors and gambling revenue. Reduced guest capacity, zero conventions and a more than 50% decline in gaming profits has some operators rethinking opening casino hotels.
MGM previously announced that they would be demolishing the Luxor Casino sometime this year, but sources have told me that MGM will now wait until the pandemic is resolved to demolish it, since there is just no interest at this point for a new strip casino. In addition, MGM is hoping to sell it to another casino company, as MGM looks to divest itself of Vegas holdings. While the Luxor has reopened with extremely cheap hotel rates since closing in March, the casino as a viable going concern just isn’t realistic given its age, dilapidated conditions and using a theme that few seem to care about these days.
The Luxor isn’t the only casino that is set to be demolished or sold
I spoke to a Las Vegas real estate agent with strong connections to the gambling industry who said that at least 6 casino hotels are being considered for sale or possible demolition for a different use. This includes four Station casinos and two Caesars casinos. The agent said that he has heard talk that Park MGM may also not reopen, although he feels this isn’t true and MGM is just waiting for tourism to increase before they reopen the hotel. The Park was set to be a host hotel for the NHL playoffs when Vegas was favored to be a host city, but after the league chose two Canadian cities for its bubbles, MGM chose to keep the Park closed. Instead MGM reopened its newer and more popular hotels which allowed for more distancing and had better ventilation such as The Bellagio, MGM signature and City Centre. The Mirage remained closed until last week after MGM was able to make some major renovations.
When Was The Riviera Casino Torn Down Today
Caesars
The real estate agent added that he has it on “good authority” that Caesars is looking seriously at the viability of The Linq hotel (formerly Imperial Palace) and The Cromwell (formerly known as The Barbary Coast and Bill’s Gambling Hall and Saloon).
Caesars spent over $200 million upgrading the Imperial Palace between 2012 and 2014, including improving hotel rooms, upgrading the casino floor and putting in a promenade and shopping center with the world’s largest Ferris wheel. But for all the expenditure many visitors claim it still has an old feel compared to the more recent hotels and room vacancy rates were still quite high compared to similar hotels, in spite of the cheaper rental rates. Consequently, Caesars has chosen to reopen the casino and promenade, but has not reopened the hotel, although they are accepting reservations should the hotel reopen any time soon.
The Cromwell was obtained by Caesars in 2007 from Boyd Gaming in exchange for the land The Westward Ho was located on to allow for the Echelon project, and in 2014 Caesars revamped the hotel spending almost $200 million to upgrade the hotel rooms and amenities, including putting in some of the strip’s most innovative pools and nightclubs. The hope was that the boutique hotel would appeal to millennials who wanted something more than just gambling options when going to Vegas. The hotel has not reopened since March apparently because being such a small hotel social distancing is difficult and right now Vegas has not authorized the opening of bars and nightclubs. Both casinos are located on prime strip property, but the real estate agent said that Caesars is seriously deciding if they still want the Linq or if they want to unload it on another casino owner like Las Vegas Sands, possibly to upgrade as a 3rd hotel for Sheldon Adelson, given its proximity to the Venetian and Palazzo. The agent said that Caesars likely will not do anything with The Cromwell at this point, but if COVID remains a concern for years to come, they may have to reconsider their options given the company’s financial woes. While the Rio and Planet Hollywood haven’t reopened either, the agent is certain Caesars has no plans to demolish or sell them.
Station Casinos
That brings us to the three Las Vegas Station Casinos, including The Palms casino just off the strip, which Station bought in 2016, as well as the Fiesta Rancho and Texas Station located in North Las Vegas. It has been well reported that the three casinos, along with Fiesta Henderson located in Henderson, will not reopen before the summer of 2021 at the earliest, but the agent said he is confident they will never reopen.
Station has said that they are not looking to sell or demolish the casinos, but the agent said it isn’t true. He claims to have it on good authority that Station is eagerly shopping the Palms and won’t turn down any reasonable offer, since the casino has underperformed since it was purchased. He added that the company is just not prepared to pour any more money for needed upgrades, as they believe it will never appeal to younger generations, even after COVID is no longer a concern. And as for Texas Station and the Fiesta Rancho the agent said “they are gone.” He claims that the smallish hotels attract very few people and he is convinced they will either be demolished for retail stores or condominiums or possibly sold to the city to use as hostels or housing for college students. “Those casinos were on shaky ground before March and Covid was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
While the agent said those were the casinos he was currently aware of, he said he wouldn’t be surprised to see more casinos sold or repurposed once the pandemic is over.
“I hate to say it,” the agent sadly said , “but Vegas as we knew it is probably gone for good.”
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