Derek Stevens and Greg Stevens Double Their Frontage at Fremont Street
Derek Stevens and Greg Stevens, the owners of Downtown Las Vegas Events Centre are planning to add a third hotel-casino resort in downtown Las Vegas, alongside the 34 storey D Las Vegas and Golden Gate Hotel and Casino, the oldest and smallest hotel on the Fremont Street Experience. The third hotel-casino is to be built on a plot, adjacent to the Las Vegas Club, which was acquired from the Granite Gaming Group.
Derek and Greg Stevens have announced that the property owned by the Granite Gaming Group, currently houses two small casinos, The Mermaids and La Bayou casinos, and The Topless Girls of Glitter Gulch adult entertainment club. After acquisition, the land will be used to erect the new entertainment venue; however, the terms of the acquisition are yet to be announces. The adult entertainment club and casinos will be closed down on the 27th of June, this year, and the existing employees of the three venues will be relocated and offered priority interview opportunities at the D Las Vegas and Golden Gate.
Still too early for details
The project is at too early a stage for any further plans to be known. In an interview, Derek Stevens said that it is too early to plan the size of theme of the new hotel; in fact it is too early to even project when construction would begin. All he could disclose was that with the purchase of this property they wanted to increase their mark on the area.
Stevens said, “When we purchased the Las Vegas Club in August, we knew then we wanted to look at a larger footprint. Now that we’ve done this transaction, it completely changes the scope of what the project could become.” He mentioned that it would a considerable amount of time and consultation with his team to figuring out the details. He said, “I’m going to need a little time with my team to start thinking through what this project will look like.”
Stevens said that he would have to analyse the market and the land to decide the optimum number of rooms, slot machines, table games, restaurants and amenities that would be appropriate for the site. He also mentioned that the company would aim to complete the analysis “as quickly as reasonable.”
Stevens disclosed that the most important part of this acquisition and the project is to increase their exposure at Fremont Street. He expressed his excitement surrounding the expansion of their foothold; with the new building, they will more than double their frontage.
“To me, this is going to be really exciting,” Stevens said. “We’ll have the entire west side of the block, along Main Street, and also the north side. Now, we have the entire east side and all the frontage along Fremont Street.”
Stevens mentioned that before they can start the planning process for the new ventures, the historical significance of the existing Mermaids, La Bayou and the Topless Girls of Glitter Gulch has to be considered. It is expected that from now until the closure of the three properties, they will see an increase in business as regular customers try to make the most of the last days to fit in visits.
He said, “Every time there’s something new that comes in, it means there are some things that are turned to memories.”
Not the only purchase
Stevens have also successfully bid for Clark County’s Bridger Building at Third Street and Bridger Avenue. Stevens was the only qualified bidder for the property and paid $2.7 million for the purchase. The company said they hope to use the property for future growth and expansion; Stevens said that the Bridger Building is likely to be used for warehousing, receiving and shipping and for corporate office space, which currently is in short supply.
He is also excited about the new hotel-casino project, as it would be the first ground-up hotel development in downtown Las Vegas in many decades. Numerous properties in the area, however, have had facelifts and renovations over the years, such as the new tower that was added to the Golden Nugget in 2009 and the Lady Luck, which was remodeled and reopened in 2013 as the Downtown Grand but none of them have been started from scratch like this one.
