vision for downtown

CIM group has released an image of what they expect that the renovated Lady Luck will look. The Mob museum should open by December 2011, and the whole resort should open by 2012. February of 2012 will be the sixth anniversary of the closing of the casino for renovations.

The same company has bought the city hall and is going to lease it out to Zappos Shoes which should bring a thousand workers to downtown. Should be good news for Gold Spike next door to City Hall.

Downtown hit a low of $504 million gaming revenue for fiscal year 2010, marking a continuing drop since 1992-93. Hotels in The Western, Binion's and The Plaza have all closed in the recession (but all casinos have remained opened).


The current Lady Luck closed in February 2006 for a 9-12 month renovation when the financing collapsed.

I'm wondering where all the Zappos employees will park? Are there large, public lots under/east of the freeway?

Quote: Ayecarumba

I'm wondering where all the Zappos employees will park? Are there large, public lots under/east of the freeway?

In 2003 the city opened a parking garage with 641 spaces. I don't think additional parking garages will be needed.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I'm wondering where all the Zappos employees will park? Are there large, public lots under/east of the freeway?

You probably mean north of the 95 freeway, and no. There are some small vacant lots, which have been used as homeless camps, before they were chased off. Seems to me there is plenty of parking in the Neonoppolis parking garage.

Parking downtown is really not a problem. You have to remember these businesses used to entertain a lot more people in past years. There is probably a thousand city employees today, so Zappos employees will probably replace one for one.

Also in a few years the city is planning to have high speed bus rapid transit running up and down Boulder Highway. Since Zappos is currently in Henderson, maybe many people will come by bus.

Quote: Wizard

You probably mean north of the 95 freeway, and no. There are some small vacant lots, which have been used as homeless camps, before they were chased off. Seems to me there is plenty of parking in the Neonoppolis parking garage.

I am always thrown by the NE curve Last Vegas Blvd. takes when you are going from the Strip to downtown. You think you are heading due north from the Strip, but actually, you are veering east (starting at The Mirage/Venetian). By the time you get to downtown, you are actually 1.5 - 2 miles east of the Strip proper (e.g., Bellagio). It also doesn't help that the blocks downtown are laid out with streets the run "on the diagonal" (SW to NE) instead of, "up and down".

The article on downtown really has several people crowing about this 10% increase in gaming revenue for October 2010. While it is a welcome change to have the first positive change in 27 months, it may not be such an amazing thing.

October has always been a good month, and the fall from $60m in 2007 to $40m in 2009 (-33%) was exceptionally severe even in the context of 2009 being a bad year. Revenue fell 12% in fiscal year 2008 and another 8% in fiscal year 2009. So October 2009 was very bad indeed.

So having revenue jump up 10% for October 2010 should be tempered by how awful was the previous October. It will be much higher to have a positive increase over November 2009.

Year	October	November
2010	$44,590,550
2009	$40,411,423	47,389,464
2008	$48,357,143	47,997,595
2007	$60,139,673	48,690,154
2006	$59,697,165	53,681,372
2005	$60,713,202	54,589,004
2004	$57,925,717	57,591,063
2003	$57,792,114	52,277,176
2002	$57,829,956	50,011,175
2001	$58,958,614	52,922,343
2000	$60,604,680	54,467,150
1999	$60,972,056	52,709,977
1998	$58,975,326	53,846,202
1997	$60,139,059	52,715,624