Your Daily Guide

Where I-215 melts into Lake Mead Parkway, there was once – believe it or not – a hotel-casino. Closed during the pandemic, never to be reopened, the long-struggling Fiesta Henderson was demolished by Station Casinos in 2022. But from the moment of its demolition, the City of Henderson eyed opportunity. City leaders purchased the land for a cool $32 million, and have spent the years since studying, surveying, and negotiating over what to do next. This week, the city announced new plans: A combination sports-retail-hotel-events complex and, notably, no casino. [KSNV, City of Henderson]

But as the city moves forward, we thought we’d take a look back at the Fiesta that was – and why the party ended early.

• Before the Fiesta came The Reserve. Opening in 1998, it was among the last of the city’s aggressively themed 90s hotels. Designed by Henry Conversano, who also designed the Mirage, The Reserve asked guests to gamble alongside bush pilot “Congo Jack,” who crashed his doomed plane into the casino’s built-in jungle. Fear not for Congo Jack – he was saved by Monsoon Mary at her nearby bar (complete with honest-to-God waterfall). [Las Vegas Review-Journal]
• Development was troubled from the get-go. Though Gem Gaming broke ground on the project in 1995 with plans to open a year later, a planned merger between the company and Ameristar Casinos Inc. soon soured. Denied gaming licenses muddled the project further, as fresh litigation between Ameristar and the original developers slowed construction to a crawl. [Las Vegas Sun]
• The Reserve, when it finally opened, struggled almost immediately. Real freeway-heads will recall that major portions of nearby I-215 – connecting Henderson to the western edges of the valley – wouldn’t be finished until 2003. Too far from other local gaming corridors like the Boulder Strip, but still out-competed by the Sunset Station (which had opened a year earlier), Ameristar packed up and sold. [Las Vegas Sun]
• Who else would buy but locals-casino giant Station Casinos, which paid $70 million for the ailing property in 2001, and shortly committed millions to rebranding the site as the Fiesta. Stations spent more than $80 million continuing to renovate through 2007, including adding hundreds of additional slot machines and a new movie theater. [Las Vegas Review-Journal]
• Then, the pandemic. Once COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, Stations kept its worst-performing properties closed. For the Fiesta, it was doubly-doomed, with Stations reporting some 90 percent of gamers having already relocated to Green Valley Ranch or Sunset Station. In July 2022, Station Casinos announced it would demolish the Fiesta and two other casinos, and the rest is history. [Las Vegas Review-Journal]
• Is the old Fiesta site forever doomed? City Cast Las Vegas answers that and more in today’s news roundup. Plus, we dive into whether the dining situation at BLVD is worth investigating and take a look at how to root for the Las Vegas Aces as the WNBA playoffs near. [City Cast Las Vegas 🎧]