Ayecarumba
Ayecarumba
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May 25th, 2016 at 9:22:36 AM permalink
Groundbreaking for the new Moulin Rouge Casino Resort project was held yesterday to surprisingly little fanfare.

Is the project getting the cold shoulder from the press due to its' relatively small scale ($100 - $150 million), or is there a bias due to the fact that the owners are African Americans with ties to the original Moulin Rouge, the first integrated hotel/casino in Las Vegas that opened on the same day back in 1955?

With it's location on the westside, not really within walking distance of the core Fremont Street Downtown hotel/casinos, it will be interesting to see what it becomes.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - Leonardo da Vinci
TwoFeathersATL
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May 25th, 2016 at 10:00:46 AM permalink
I re-read the Wiki 'History of Las Vegas' again yesterday.
Don't know why, I never know why, but I did re-read it yesterday.....
1955 was a very good year for many things, one of them was me (me good or bad, debatable).
I wish them good fortune in the new venture.

I suggest almost naked dancing girls, good BJ tables, and decent comps....
What could possibly go wrong ;-)
Youuuuuu MIGHT be a 'rascal' if.......(nevermind ;-)...2F
MrV
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May 25th, 2016 at 10:58:29 AM permalink
Can you really polish a turd?

I guess we'll find out.
"What, me worry?"
Ayecarumba
Ayecarumba
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May 25th, 2016 at 11:17:02 AM permalink
Quote: MrV

Can you really polish a turd?

I guess we'll find out.



Since you asked... Yes!

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - Leonardo da Vinci
AxelWolf
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May 26th, 2016 at 7:27:09 AM permalink
Groundbreaking.... I don't think I have ever paid attention to a groundbreaking for ANY casino.

Let's see how the opening goes before we start with the race atuff.
♪♪Now you swear and kick and beg us That you're not a gamblin' man Then you find you're back in Vegas With a handle in your hand♪♪ Your black cards can make you money So you hide them when you're able In the land of casinos and money You must put them on the table♪♪ You go back Jack do it again roulette wheels turinin' 'round and 'round♪♪ You go back Jack do it again♪♪
MrV
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May 26th, 2016 at 7:46:30 AM permalink
IIRC, that used to be a rough neighborhood: has anything changed in that regard?

Is there business plan to market primarily to blacks, and if so, what will they do specifically in that regard?
"What, me worry?"
Romes
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May 26th, 2016 at 7:50:23 AM permalink
Quote: MrV

...Is there business plan to market primarily to blacks, and if so, what will they do specifically in that regard?

In joking: Fried Chicken Fridays? Watermelon Wednesdays?

...I'd go for both of these =P. Also, it's cool, I have some black friends so yeah.
Playing it correctly means you've already won.
RogerKint
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May 26th, 2016 at 8:23:04 AM permalink
Quote: Romes

Also, it's cool, I have some black friends so yeah.




100% risk of ruin
RogerKint
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May 26th, 2016 at 8:25:58 AM permalink
Quote: MrV

IIRC, that used to be a rough neighborhood: has anything changed in that regard?

Is there business plan to market primarily to blacks, and if so, what will they do specifically in that regard?



Still rough unless you're used to going from downtown to Texas Station?
100% risk of ruin
sammydv
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June 2nd, 2016 at 6:45:53 PM permalink
Quote: MrV

Can you really polish a turd?

I guess we'll find out.



??? you don't allow PM's ...but...sound familiar?

Posted by: sco_ _ _ ...
To paraphrase Shakespeare, Spiro Agnew and Faulkner simultaneously...
The natterin' nabobs of negativity while full of sound and fury signify nothing in their process of protesting too much.
Greasyjohn
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June 2nd, 2016 at 9:49:58 PM permalink
I've driven by the Moulin Rouge many times. The area is just about as bad as it gets.

(Go a few blocks west of the Moulin Rouge on Bonanza at N. Tonopah to see the old Benny Binion home.)
Last edited by: Greasyjohn on Jun 2, 2016
AxelWolf
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June 3rd, 2016 at 2:14:34 AM permalink
Quote: RogerKint

Still rough unless you're used to going from downtown to Texas Station?

Ya, I didn't know what to say.

He sounds very racist.
♪♪Now you swear and kick and beg us That you're not a gamblin' man Then you find you're back in Vegas With a handle in your hand♪♪ Your black cards can make you money So you hide them when you're able In the land of casinos and money You must put them on the table♪♪ You go back Jack do it again roulette wheels turinin' 'round and 'round♪♪ You go back Jack do it again♪♪
AZDuffman
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June 3rd, 2016 at 3:25:47 AM permalink
Quote: Ayecarumba


Is the project getting the cold shoulder from the press due to its' relatively small scale ($100 - $150 million), or is there a bias due to the fact that the owners are African Americans with ties to the original Moulin Rouge, the first integrated hotel/casino in Las Vegas that opened on the same day back in 1955?



Minority ownership should have the press racing the site. Connections to the old one, an interesting local story but IMHO that ends there, most people never heard of the first one. Again IMHO I will go with the small scale and that well casino ground breakings are just not as exciting as they used to be,
All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others
DrawingDead
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June 3rd, 2016 at 7:30:04 AM permalink
Ha! It gets reported if someone sneezes on that site. And that's just about what's happened.

The reason there isn't fanfare is because nothing much is happening. Just like the nothing much that has happened at that site so often before. It is in bankruptcy receivership. Nobody really owns it. So once again for the umpteenth time someone publicly announces that they plan to buy it from the latest bankruptcy receivership, but they don't have any actual money to do much of anything. They have plans. Plans for other people to put up money to do something. Again. As has happened many times over the last several decades, in between the three times the rubble has been set on fire by local crackheads.

Sorry to be that way about it, but this little movie has been seen too many times for anyone familiar with it to take it seriously unless and until the day someone actually puts up some real money. Over the last fifteen years or so several others have announced grand plans, sent out a press release, and turned over a shovel of dirt in a ceremonial "groundbreaking." But with no real money in-hand that was anywhere close to what is needed to actually try to do anything with what's left of it. And then, nothing happened.

Right now this fellow doesn't even have the money to do the demolition needed to make it into a buildable vacant lot. Maybe he'll actually get some. And maybe I'll live long enough to see world peace, five percent takeout, and a good ten cent cigar. If he does, I'd be pleased to see it, and real sure at least the local press & public big-shots would be all over it in a big way, and quite possibly some national news outlets and dignitaries too. I won't be waiting by the phone for it. But make me a liar this time, please.

This morning's Review-Journal on the topic:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/casinos-gaming/moulin-rouge-site-receiver-files-motion-sell-property-8m

Quote: NICOLE RAZ - REVIEW-JOURNAL


...<SNIP>...

After being in receivership for the past three years, the 15.5 acres that make up the Moulin Rouge site may have a new owner.

The receiver of the property, Kevin Hanchett, filed a motion in District Court for Clark County on Thursday to seek approval for the sale to Moulin Rouge Holdings LLC for $8 million. The sale will close five days after court approval.

Boris London, managing member of Moulin Rouge Holdings LLC, is working to figure out where that $8 million will come from. London has put $500,000 in an escrow account toward the purchase of the downtown Las Vegas site.

“I am the only person who has put money down. Right now everybody has ideas, but nobody is putting money down,” London said....

...<SNIP>...


By the way, the Review-Journal happens to be located practically across the street from the old Moulin Rouge site, with R-J on the south side of West Bonanza vs. the remaining rubble of the Moulin over on the north side just slightly more to the west. And I have no doubt whatsoever that the staff of the R-J would absolutely be 110% thrilled to have a watering hole & general sin joint they can go to within spitting distance of their office cubicles, if it was actually happening. Especially if complementary adult beverages were involved. Some of them would practically live there.
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MrV
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June 3rd, 2016 at 8:55:24 AM permalink
Assume they build it: who will go there?

The locals will, but only IF the casino offers the best gambling deal in town, which is economically unlikely.

No, their target audience would be black people, and I have to wonder wonder whether they'd patronize it, given the fact that the race barrier in Las Vegas was broken over fifty years ago, and today blacks / minorities are as welcome as anybody in all the casinos.

There would need to be something special, other than "history," and thus far I can't puzzle out what that might be.

I doubt we'll ever find out, given the lack of serious money behind it; heck, Las Vegas' own black mega-millionaire, Floyd Mayweather, could jump in on the deal, as could many other well-heeled cats, if they thought it made economic and social sense.
"What, me worry?"
DrawingDead
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October 15th, 2016 at 6:23:08 PM permalink
I dunno what to make of this latest hugemongous fantasmagorical stupendous super orgasmic spectacular announcement of soaring boundless fabulousness, reported yesterday:

London-based developer outlines Moulin Rouge development plans

Quote: LVRJ, By NICOLE RAZ

“The overall cost of the development itself, which includes several different pieces, is about $1.9 billion for this initial flagship component,” Taliaferro said.

I think playing this hand probably has to be "push all-in, or fold." Either this is by far the most significant thing ever (allegedly going to be) happening to that whole part of town, involving what's left of the entire old neighborhood that was really born as a distinctly separate city on "that side of the tracks." Or, someone just unloaded an astonishingly large pile of bovine excrement, even by Las Vegas standards, and it amounts to a ridiculous fantasy utterly without meaningful substance that will have absolutely no tangible practical effect whatsoever.

What they're talking about here isn't a casino/entertainment development limited to the old crumbling Moulin site. It amounts to largely wiping away the remains of that old community and creating a new town over the grave of the old one and erasing the whole context of that neighborhood and what leads into it. It appears to me that something on this scale couldn't be feasible to create one piece at a time, not there; each expensive piece is only potentially valuable enough with all the surrounding newly reinvented pieces.

After seeing quite a number of much more modest and at least superficially more practical "announcements" for this property that you could kinda sorta maybe see someone trying if they could come up with the capital (but probably not - and always eventually fizzling out with "not") this one is much more ambitious, they moved the decimal point, and I see no breathing room for any gradual in-between contingent steps. Not at that very challenging location. "Start this piece #1, then with all the great success demonstrating this #1 part is paying off probably finance that #2 piece adjoining and serving #1, then maybe later the capital can be raised for those #3 & #4 & #5 things involved in changing the surroundings and the access to #1 & #2 & all the rest." Huh-uh, I don't think so. To me, they either already have rock solid financing commitments with some big league investors firmly in-hand to really go all the way with this one, or else what this newest group has in-hand is a lapsed prescription for some heavy duty anti-psychotic meds. One or the other, take your pick.
Last edited by: DrawingDead on Oct 15, 2016
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DrawingDead
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October 16th, 2016 at 10:05:03 AM permalink
Who is Steve Hayashi?

The relevance of the question will be apparent in this piece in Vegas Inc, which I think is more informative than the LVRJ report I linked to above about this area redevelopment plan that would resurrect some version of the Moulin Rouge, even though this VI article is about a license application for small place about a mile or so away:

Regulators delay West Las Vegas gambling hall’s revamp as Tokyo Casino

With technology now making access to previously obscure disconnected bits of public information so quick & easy, I can usually manage to get a pretty good portrait of just about anyone without much effort at all. But for this Mr. Hayashi fellow I must be doing it wrong, because at this moment my portrait of him is a total blank.

The rest of this will get long-winded. And this is a super short version, because I suspect there's likely to be limited interest in the topic, since getting the whole picture inevitably gets more local than a barking dog, involves some things older than dirt, and there are no tier credits involved.

I think about half of what I wrote here yesterday could be wrong. Or not. I don't imagine there's likely to be massive interest on this forum about the rubble of the Moulin, or the 'hood extending to the north & east of it, or what happens at the corner of Jackson Ave & F Street, but it interests me a lot and I've learned quite a bit more about this latest biggest plan just in the last 12 hours. Starting with the fact that I had absolutely no idea that the redo & planned reopening of the old "New Town Tavern" joint on Jackson was part of any such grand scheme to reinvent the neighborhood, even though I have a lot of interest in that place and have had a few chats with some people involved as they've been working on it..

The fuzzy public presentations about the money and hazy identity of some involved in the project has me wondering if this could just possibly be the kind of unconventional enterprise that doesn't actually need to produce a profitable return on investment within a typical time frame in the way that's commonly understood and formally accounted for, because there might conceivably be some other values to be had by some of the investors. I know that's probably so vague and mealy mouthed that it might amount to a fog to some, but I think it is as far as I should go in that direction in a public forum when it is nothing but my own speculation going far beyond what is actually known.

I was told a few months ago by someone involved in redoing the small Jackson Ave casino site that they had run into a delay in the licensing process, but they were hoping to be open "by late October." I've been involved in managing some urban redevelopment projects in the past so I believe I do have some idea what it usually costs to get stuff done, and it looks obvious to me that they've already put more money into the small Town Tavern/Tokyo Casino site than the property would be worth on the market at this time, even though their licensing status is still very much up in the air. The actual physical work there has been done for months. It looks nice enough inside. Spiffy enough to almost feel a little disturbing and make you wonder where you're at because of the contrast with what it has been and what's outside right now.

To remake most of the area of the alphabet and president streets, extending between the Moulin and Town Tavern sites and from near MLK to the railroad, is a huge undertaking that would be an enormous change in the old urban core. The area involved is significantly bigger than the downtown casino district. If they get through the licensing hoops, and really have that kind of money behind them, to get it done they will also have to navigate some very touchy extremely local and sometimes quite personal politics marinated in issues of race and class and some strongly held perceptions of historical grievance involved in that neighborhood. But so far everything I've heard from them has been quite good at hitting just the right sort of respectful notes to be effective in that community. Also, there would be a lot less potential displacement of people in that particular rectangle of old "West" Las Vegas once you get to the east side of H Street, compared to the more dense population of mostly owner occupied homes in the rest of old "Northtown." I happened to be passing by the general area late last night, so before heading home I went up to look at it again in a more detailed somewhat clinical way that I haven't before. With too much time on my hands & coffee in my belly, I ended up with an informal land/structure survey concluding that just a little under 40% of the acreage is now both uninhabited and uninhabitable in its current condition. I'm thinking there's actually a reasonable chance the project could succeed on the local politics front, avoiding death by a thousand potentially highly politicized permit battles.

But none of it will amount to anything at all, even as a spectator sport, if they don't manage to get licensed. So, who is this gentleman Steve Hayashi? And... the money? In a closely held small private investment group supposedly going to amount to about two billion, originally from... something, somewhere.
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CasinoKiller
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October 16th, 2016 at 1:08:04 PM permalink
Quote: MrV

Can you really polish a turd?

I guess we'll find out.



What the f!##/ does that mean?
Last edited by: beachbumbabs on Oct 16, 2016
What goes around always comes back around
beachbumbabs
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October 16th, 2016 at 2:06:56 PM permalink
Quote: CasinoKiller

What the f!##/ does that mean?

.

Warning. Profanity. Board is PG.
If the House lost every hand, they wouldn't deal the game.
CasinoKiller
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October 16th, 2016 at 2:11:37 PM permalink
Discrimination tolerated ? Ok...
What goes around always comes back around
Ibeatyouraces
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October 16th, 2016 at 2:14:27 PM permalink
PG for a board that is supposed to be for adults only. *laughs*
DUHHIIIIIIIII HEARD THAT!
beachbumbabs
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October 16th, 2016 at 2:18:01 PM permalink
Quote: CasinoKiller

Discrimination tolerated ? Ok...



Oh, nonsense. It's an old saying about how you can polish a diamond or gem and reveal its brilliance if the core element is sound, but if something is bad to the core, no amount of polishing will give it value.

You're really working to make it a discriminatory comment, and I don't accept your insinuation.
If the House lost every hand, they wouldn't deal the game.
DrawingDead
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October 26th, 2016 at 12:58:39 AM permalink
And so it goes:

London developer rescinds Moulin Rouge development offer

And in other news, today is Tuesday, and it will be followed by Wednesday, with or without yet another announcement by someone else of a newer-new great plan to do something with the Moulin Rouge.

I may have my own theory about why they've pulled the plug on this one now, aside from the transparent fig leaf about "civic support" quoted in the linked article, but I think the R-J piece above does about as well as anyone reasonably could in trying to detail what has happened while stuck with what hard verifiable facts are publicly known. And that means the tale of this latest greatest grandest Moulin plan still gets sketchy in places for someone trying to figure out who these folks are, or were, and what money they may really have had to do this supposed $1.9 billion thing, and from where.

So now I wonder (and I may be about half of all the people outside that neighborhood wondering): What now becomes of the Town Tavern/Tokyo Casino site up on Jackson & F Street? It is all dressed up with all the extensive interior renovations long since completed, but still sitting there with the lights on but the doors locked, with no Gaming license having been granted or recommended for approval, and so far as I can determine no date set for them to try again. Hmmm.
Last edited by: DrawingDead on Oct 26, 2016
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