List of Las Vegas casinos that never opened

Over the years there have been several casinos and resorts planned for Las Vegas that never opened. The stages of planning may have been just an announcement or groundbreaking.

Asia Resort and Casino

Where the Palazzo Casino and Resort currently stands (adjacent to the Venetian Hotel and Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center), an Asian themed casino was proposed but was rejected for the present Palazzo project.[1]

Beau Rivage

Steve Wynn, who had purchased and demolished the Dunes, had originally planned to build a modern hotel in the middle of a man-made lake. He later built the Bellagio with a man-made lake in the front of the hotel. The name was later used by Wynn for a resort built in Biloxi, Mississippi.[2]

Caribbean Casino

In 1988, a sign for a proposed casino was erected on a fenced vacant lot on Flamingo Road. Standing near the sign was a scale model galleon. For several years, that was all that stood on the property. The empty lot was the source of many jokes by the locals until the ship, which was later damaged by a fire started by a homeless person, was torn down in the 1990s and the lot became the site of the Tuscany Suites and Casino co-owned by Charles Heers, the same man who has owned the property since the 1960s.[3]

Cascada

A proposed resort that was to have been built on the site of El Rancho Vegas. The parcel is now partially taken by the Hilton Grand Vacations Timeshares and Las Vegas Festival Grounds.[1]

City by the Bay Resort and Casino

A San Francisco-themed resort was proposed for the site of the New Frontier Hotel and Casino. The project was rejected in favor of the Swiss-themed Montreux, which itself was canceled in favor of the Las Vegas Plaza, modeled after the Plaza Hotel in New York City.[1] The project of the Las Vegas Plaza was also cancelled in 2011, due to the worsened economic conditions.

Countryland USA

A Country Music themed resort that was planned for construction of the site of the former El Rancho Casino (itself formerly the Thunderbird Casino, now the Fontainebleau Resort Las Vegas). For some years, the El Rancho sign stood with the words "Coming Soon - Future Home of Countryland USA."[4][5]

Crown Las Vegas

Formerly known as Las Vegas Tower, the Crown Las Vegas was to have been a supertall skyscraper built on the former site of the Wet 'n Wild Water Park. In March 2008, the project was canceled and the property put up for sale.[6]

Desert Kingdom

In 1993, ITT Sheraton purchased the Desert Inn casino, and had announced plans to develop the large parking lot into a Balinese themed resort to complement the Desert Inn. The project was never developed and the site is now the location of Wynn Las Vegas.[1]

DeVille Casino

After building the Landmark Hotel and Casino on Convention Center Drive and selling it to Howard Hughes, developer Frank Carroll later built the DeVille Casino across the street from the Landmark on 900 Convention Center Drive in 1969. Chips were made for the casino (and are sought after collectibles), but the casino never opened.[7] The building was renovated in 1992 as a race book parlor named Sport of Kings which closed after nine months.[8] It became the location of The Beach nightclub which was later demolished in 2007, leaving only the small parking structure.[9]

Echelon Place

An announced project by Boyd Gaming planned to have a hotel built on the property of the former Stardust Resort & Casino. Construction was suspended on August 1, 2008 due to the Great Recession. In March 2013, Boyd Gaming sold the proposed site for $350 million to the Genting Group. Instead, an Asian-themed resort called Resorts World Las Vegas is being built.

Harley-Davidson Hotel and Casino

A resort themed after the motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson was proposed, complete with hotel towers shaped like gigantic exhaust pipes, but was never built.[1]

Jockey Club Casino

The Jockey Club is a timeshare resort at 3700 Las Vegas Blvd South. Plans were to have a casino, and chips were made for its use, but the casino was never opened.[10]

Las Vegas Plaza

Not to be confused with the Plaza Hotel & Casino.

To have been modeled after the Plaza Hotel in New York City. This was one of three projects proposed in the site where the New Frontier Hotel and Casino once stood. The other two projects that were proposed were a San Francisco-themed resort and a Swiss-themed resort; however those two were rejected. The project of Las Vegas Plaza was cancelled in 2011 due to the Great Recession. Instead, a resort called Alon Las Vegas will be built.

London Resort and Casino

An announced project that was to have been themed around the city of London, and featuring replicas of the city's landmarks. The project was to be built on land across from the Luxor Hotel and Casino. A second London-themed resort was to be built on the former land of the El Rancho Hotel and Casino. Neither project ever began construction.[1]

London, Las Vegas

A proposed 3-phase project using London, England as its design inspiration. When completed, the 38.5-acre property would feature 1,300 hotel rooms, a casino, a 500-foot-tall observation wheel named Skyvue (partially constructed), and 550,000 square feet of restaurants and shops—all of which would be architectural replicas of various British landmarks and neighborhoods.[11] The project was to be constructed on land across from the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, where—as of March 2016—the partially-constructed Skyvue Ferris wheel still stands. The wheel was to be "Phase I of London, Las Vegas".

Montreux Resort

A Swiss-themed resort to have been built on the property of the former New Frontier Hotel and Casino (chosen after a proposed San Francisco-themed "City by the Bay" was rejected). Instead, a casino modeled after the Plaza Hotel in New York City would have been built, but the project was cancelled in 2011 due to the worsened economic conditions.[12]

Moon Resort and Casino

Proposed by Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada developer Michael Henderson, this is a planned 10,000-room, 250-acre (1.0 km2) lunar-themed casino resort.[13] Gaming experts doubt it will ever be built in Las Vegas, simply because the space planned for it is too large for the Strip.[1]

Palace of the Sea Resort and Casino

To have been built on the former Wet 'n Wild waterpark site. Conceptual drawings included yacht-shaped towers that housed suites, a casino resembling the Sydney Opera House and a 600-foot (180 m) tall Ferris wheel type attraction dubbed a "Sky Wheel". It never left the planning stages.[1]

Planet Hollywood Resort (The Original)

Not to be confused with the current Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.

Originally planned to open in the late 1990s on the site of the Desert Inn, it was to be one of the largest hotels in Las Vegas. However, because of the bankruptcy by Planet Hollywood Restaurants, the hotel was never built. However, in the 2000s, a group of investors bought the new Aladdin Hotel and Casino and remodeled it with a modern Hollywood theme. The hotel does not feature a Planet Hollywood Restaurant.[1]

Playboy Hotel and Casino

A proposed casino resort themed after Playboy Magazine was rejected in favor of a nightclub and suites built at the top two floors of the new Palms tower.[1] The planned location for the Playboy Hotel and Casino is the site of the current Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.[14]

Shenandoah Hotel and Casino

Wayne Newton's passion for Shenandoah, the valley in Virginia where he was raised, proved not enough to get his casino opened under the same name. Although the hotel operated for a short time at 120 E Flamingo Road, the management was unable to get a gaming license. After years of floundering it was sold to a Canadian company and became Bourbon Street Hotel and Casino.

Starship Orion

ITB announced plans to demolish the El Rancho and construct Starship Orion, a $1 billion hotel, casino, entertainment and retail complex with an outer space theme, covering 5.4 million square feet. The resort was to include seven separately owned casinos, with each one being approximately 30,000 square feet.[15][16] Each potential casino owner was to contribute up to $100 million to own and operate a casino within the complex.[17] The complex would have also included 300,000 square feet of retail space, as well as 2,400 hotel rooms and a 65-story hotel tower. ITB hoped to begin construction later that year (1996), with a planned opening date of April 1998.[16]

Sunrise

To have been located at 4575 Boulder Highway, Las Vegas.

Property developer Michael Mona Jr. built the hotel-casino, bragging that he was going to break tradition by starting a "casino without a theme". He failed to get an unrestricted gaming license when suspicions arose concerning Mona's associations with alleged organized crime figures. Chips were made for the casino, but were never used.[18] The building still stands and is now Arizona Charlie's Boulder.

Titanic

Themed after the doomed luxury liner RMS Titanic, this resort was to have been modeled after the ship and would have been 400 feet (120 m) long with 1,200 rooms, standing on the site of El Rancho Vegas. The project was rejected by the Las Vegas City Council.[1]

World Trade Center

To have been located at 925 East Desert Inn Road, Las Vegas.

Leonard Shoen, co-founder of U-Haul truck rental, purchased the property of what had been the Chaparral Hotel & Casino in 1996, renovating it into the World Trade Center Hotel. A gaming license was applied for, but when it was discovered that two of Mr. Shoen's closest partners were convicted felons, the application was denied in 1998. He withdrew his application, and later died in a car crash in 1999 that was ruled a suicide. Cards and gaming chips were produced for the World Trade Center Casino, but were never used.[19] The property has since been demolished and is now a parking lot, part of the Las Vegas convention center annex.

World Wrestling Federation

A casino resort themed after the World Wrestling Federation, now known as WWE, was proposed for a property near the Interstate 15 freeway across from Mandalay Bay. The project never went past the proposal stage.[1]

WWE also proposed to open on the property best known as the Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Casino, but now known as the Clarion Hotel and Casino.

Xanadu

Planned in the mid 1970s, it would have been the first themed mega-resort. Much information and artifacts of the project are housed at University of Nevada - Las Vegas library.[20]

See also

References

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