With the economy in the toilet and Las Vegas taking a big hit, it’s not surprising that there aren’t too many “grand plans” being announced by the various hotel and casino companies in town. In fact there are more cancelled plans being announced than new development proposals.
Bucking that trend is Harrah’s Entertainment, the casino giant that operates more than half a dozen gaming destinations in Vegas including Caesars Palace, Harrah’s, Bally’s, Flamingo, Imperial Palace, Rio, Paris Las Vegas, and more. Last week the company announced their next grand plan for Las Vegas… a street.
Yes, instead of tearing down and/or massively overhauling their existing resorts (as they had long been rumored to do) the company will instead focus on smaller projects such as this proposal, which will transform an alley into a Bourbon Street like series of restaurants, bars, and entertainment spaces.
The project will go in between the company’s Flamingo and O’Sheas casinos and will involve a cosmetic overhaul of the latter. The pedestrian only street will stretch east from The Strip to the monorail and will be capped by a giant Ferris wheel.
Longtime readers of this column will remember the giant Ferris wheel from previous stories. At various times it was proposed for several different hotels on and off The Strip including, at one point, Harrah’s own Rio Suites. At more than 600-feet high, it would be one of the tallest of its breed in the world, similar to the London Eye.
When all of this will happen and how much all of it will cost is still very much up in the air, leaving some observers (including myself) to roll their eyes and say “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Harrah’s, like every other casino company around the country, has been hit hard by the economic downturn and is weighted down by more than $20 billion in debt. Financing the street and Ferris wheel will be difficult if not impossible until things turn around unless they get a deep-pocketed partner to step in and push things forward.
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