Vegas hotel appears headed toward demolition

Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming Corp. reportedly has hired an experienced demolition contracting firm to dismantle a currently vacant hotel and casino on that city’s southeast side.

An article on the website of the Las Vegas Review-Journal says a county commercial demolition permit was filed earlier this month pertaining to the former Eastside Cannery hotel and casino.

The newspaper says Las Vegas Demolition is listed as the contractor on that permit, describing that company as having been involved in previous demolition projects at regional hotels and casinos including the Fiesta Rancho, Fiesta Henderson and Texas Station.

“Those three properties were owned by Station Casinos and, like Eastside Cannery, never reopened from the pandemic shutdowns,” writes Eli Segall of the Review-Journal.

Las Vegas hotel teardowns and rebuilds have become a regular occurrence in southern Nevada, where new casinos quickly can offer return on investment.

Earlier this year, demolition started on the former Tropicana Hotel, although it will be replaced by a Major League Baseball stadium rather than a new casino and hotel structure.

Regarding the Eastside Cannery site, a Boyd Gaming spokesperson told the local newspaper there was insufficient demand to reopen the hotel and casino in its current format.

Instead, the casino operator indicates the land may be sold and redeveloped for residential use.

According to the Review-Journal, Boyd Gaming has owned the 300-room hotel and 64,000-square-foot casino since 2016 but did not purchase the nearly 30 acres of land beneath it until this February.

Neither the hotel nor casino has reopened since being closed for pandemic restrictions in 2016, according to Segall.

According to its website, Boyd Gaming continues to operate several other hotels and casinos in Nevada, including The Orleans and Gold Coast properties.