R.I.P., Sahara (1952-2011)

Once the Riviera changed hands, the Strip casino for whom mortality seemed most imminent became the Sahara. The ‘death by a thousand cuts’ regime of nightclub impresario and absentee owner Sam Nazarian bled the place to the extent that there was no point going there anymore. It became seedier and dirtier, and large swaths of the hotel-casino — the buffet, the upstairs showroom, two hotel towers — were simply shut down. The symbolic kiss of death came when Colony Capital bought into Nazarian’s SBE. In the casino industry, where CEO Tom Barrack (our Yankee Doodle version of James Packer) goes, disaster soon follows.

The original, Moorish-themed casino floor and the adjacent House of Lords restaurant were beautiful, and possessed Old Vegas cachet in spades. On a personal note, the Sahara was the first casino at which I had dinner after moving to Vegas in January 1999. So there’s definitely a bittersweet feeling that comes with today’s sad news. (One should note that Chuck Monster of VegasTripping.com was first to break the story.) It also has dire implications for the Las Vegas Monorail, whose northern terminus will soon be next to a giant derelict.

As of May 16, the former hangout of the Rat Pack, Louis Prima and (briefly) The Beatles will go dark, Nazarian having deemed the property “no longer economically viable.” He ought to know, his determination to run the place like a grind joint having contributed to its downfall. In the course of making still more empty promises, Nazarian has the nerve to posit “a complete renovation and repositioning.” That’s the same spiel Sam has been spewing since he bought the place for $350 million at the apex of the Vegas bubble and trotted out remodeling plans the following year (below). “The Naz” has barely done jack with the Sahara since then. Why talk of “repositioning” in 2011 when you couldn’t do it in 2008, before the bubble popped?

Contrast Nazarian’s verbal scirocco with the more pragmatic course charted for the Riv by new owner Barry Sternlicht. The curse of the Riv was that late CEO William Westerman had enough cash flow to keep it limping along but too much debt to truly redo the place. Sternlicht and property CEO Andy Choy are mulling a full redevelopment of the Riv but realize this isn’t the moment to go to Wall Street for the billion(s) it will require.

Sternlicht & Co. will give the casino floor and eateries a much-needed spiffing up, then try to hang in there until what has been aptly described as a “lumbering recovery” gathers speed. Compared to Sternlicht’s stark realism, Nazarian’s pie-in-the-sky blather about imminent turnaround and the North Strip being “the future of Las Vegas” sounds like more empty bluster from a loudmouth. Besides, Sternlicht ran the Desert Inn and Caesars Palace after his REIT took over ITT Sheraton, so he’s got Strip experience that makes Nazarian look like a dilettante.

Displaced Sahara guests will be domiciled at various MGM Resorts International properties. I wonder if this was one of the selling points when The Naz persuaded Bellagio to turn its Fontana Bar into a Nazarian-run nightclub. (“Psssst, I can deliver a bunch of customers to your door, starting May 17, wink-wink nudge-nudge. Say no more.”) It certainly would have sweetened the pot for MGM.

When Nazarian threw in his lot with Murren, the handwriting was on the wall for the Sahara: SB Preferred members would be funneled into M life, swelling MGM’s player database (and room occupancy, no doubt). One would like to believe Nazarian’s quasi-promise that displaced Sahara employees may find jobs at MGM … but the latter hasn’t been filling vacated positions at CityCenter (now with 40% fewer full-time employees), so we’d best keep our fingers crossed for the Sahara exiles. Ditto casino manager Navegante Group, which narrowly missed out on a chance to run the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and now loses its flagship gig. If debtholders seize Aliante Station, maybe Navegante can set up shop there.

Cynics who said that Nazarian was just using the Sahara as a real-estate play, looking to flip it for a quick profit, may find some vindication in this week’s events. The announcement also pulls the rug out from under execrable Striptease and Rick Thomas, who returns from Bermuda to find his tigers and magic both out on the street. Combine this with the impending death of American Superstars at the Stratosphere and the recent demise of Burlesque: The Show at the Westin Casuarina and it’s been a hellacious week for entertainment on the Strip.

SBE’s plans for the Sahara hinged upon several other projects — Crown Las Vegas, Fontainebeau, Echelon, El-Ad Properties‘ Plaza and MGM’s CityCenter North — coming to fruition. The Crown and the Plaza sites are graveyards; MGM doesn’t want to build on the Strip again for a good 9-10 years, Echelon is a skeleton and F-blew is, as Sternlicht (left) put it, a big blue smokestack. Isolated and obsolete, the Sahara might have eventually succumbed to market forces but Nazarian’s malign neglect accelerated the demise and besmirched the Strip dowager’s reputation. Oh, but The Naz promises “a creative and comprehensive new solution to this historic property.” Sounds ominously like a Final Solution to me. As the Los Angeles Times dryly noted, Nazarian’s blather about turning an old hotel with small rooms into “a hot spot for the rich and beautiful” seemed blissfully incognizant of the Sahara’s location, infrastructure and market position: “a haunt of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, once paid bathing beauties to frolic in its Garden of Allah pool. It is now home to a roller coaster and a NASCAR Cafe known for its 6-pound burrito.”

Rome burned whilst Nero fiddled. The Sahara decayed while Nazarian was fart-assing around on night-time soap operas. (Funny how much the Sahara looks just like it did at the time of that The Hills episode and is unlikely to feel like being “transported to St. Tropez.” Plus you’ve got to love the blank rictus of terror on Heidi Montag‘s face as she pretends to understand what Nazarian is talking about.)

Woe betide any gaming regulators who might be nodding at their posts. Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval has demonstrated that, unlike his predecessor, he won’t tolerate incompetence.

The Hos and the Restless: Stock in Sociedade de Jogos de Macau has begun recovering some of its lost market capitalization now that Stanley Ho and his multiple families have reached yet another “mutual understanding.” Given the twists and turns that already taken place, there’s no telling if this indeed the end of the dynastic strife that has seen various heirs-to-be sordidly tussling for pieces of the Ho empire before Dear Old Dad is even in the ground, let alone deceased. If SJM Executive Director Angela Leong (pictured) and ally Gordon Oldham are pronouncing themselves “satisfied” and reaffirming Ms. Leong’s standing on the SJM board, she comes out looking like a winner. But her rival, the notorious Pansy Ho, is never to be underestimated.