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The "Swim with the sharks" pool area
 

Landry's Plans for Golden Nugget Expansion

In the heart of downtown Las Vegas since 1905, the Golden Nugget has been through many owners and many changes. The new owners (Landry's) have lofty goals for the classiest downtown hotel.

The plans include:

• the shuffling and addition of many restaurants and clubs.
• an enlarged pool area with a shark tank.  (now open)
• new hotel tower (construction to begin in 2008)
• a remodeling of all the public spaces (finished)
• expansion of the casino adding 400 slots and 10 table games including  the relocation and expansion the poker room, sports book and keno areas  (now open)
• a new 4,500-sq. ft. ultra-lounge, Gold Diggers, on the second floor of the area over First St. with an open area for viewing the Fremont Street Experience (now open)
• 11,000 sq. ft. convention space addition (now open)
• New high-limit slot salon "Salon Noveau" (now open)
• The Buffet (now open)
• Downtowns only sushi bar (now open)
• The Grotto restaurant (now open)
• 600-seat showroom (now open)
• Lillie's Noodle House (now open)
• a new porte-cochere on Casino Center Blvd. (now open)

Early rendering of New pool

New Tower coming soon

12/19/07 Gold Diggers nightclub and Red Sushi opens.

7/12/07  The new nightclub (under construction) now has a name - Gold Diggers. It will be 4,500 square feet and have an outdoor area which overlooks Fremont St. Other features of this new $70-million addition include 11,000 square feet of convention space, a casino expansion and downtowns first sushi bar.

Also, there was confirmation that they are still planning a room tower addition. The $150 million-tower will have about 500 rooms. They expect to break ground in late 2008 and plan a 2009 opening.

 click to enlarge

City Abandoned Section of First Street

The City of Las Vegas has abandoned a portion of First Street at Landry's request to facilitate the expansion of the Golden Nugget.

Landry's  Moving Forward

7/20/05  The Golden Nugget casino in downtown Las Vegas is looking into expanding the west side of the property across First Street. The owners have purchased some land across First Street for potential development. The move would enable the casino to add about 12,000 to 15,000 square feet of additional gaming space by moving existing non-gaming operations to a new building on the new site.

Expanding the property onto First Street would be complicated because the street is city-owned and is leased by the Fremont Street Experience mall and lightshow, which also operates a bandstand there. The Fremont Street Experience is considering moving the bandstand so the Golden Nugget can expand.

9/8/05    Landry's, the new owners of the Golden Nugget are planning to use the newly acquired land for a new rooms tower, two high-end restaurants, and a 1200 seat auditorium.

Landry's is the nation's second-largest operator of aquariums and plans to develop a swimming pool at the Golden Nugget next to an aquarium so that swimmers can swim within inches of sharks.

This expansion will require the use of 1st St. (between Fremont St. and Carson St.) and Carson St. (between 1st St. and  Main St.) (shown left). This is the second time the Golden Nugget has requested that the city abandon a street for an expansion project.

click to enlarge

The Golden Nugget opened in 1905 as a small gambling hall with sawdust on the floors. Over the years, they bought up lot after lot of neighboring land until they owned the entire block.

In 1972, Steve Wynn took control of the Nugget and convinced the city to sell one block on Carson Street to enable a full block expansion including a new rooms tower. This project put the Golden Nugget on the map, with a complete makeover of the existing spaces. The expansion (bringing the rooms total to 1,907) and makeover, raised the Nuggets rating to four stars and attracted a better classed clientele.

In 2000, Wynn sold all of his properties, including the Nugget, to MGM.

In 2004 MGM sold the Nugget to Tim Poster and Tom Breitling, who used FOX TV to highlight the hotel on the show "Casino" They changed a few things here and there but nothing major was done.

In February 2005 Tim and Tom sold the Nugget to Landry's. Landry's owns and operates more than 300 restaurants including Landry's Seafood House, Joe's Crab Shack, Willie G's Seafood & Steakhouse and The Chart House.  By 2008, They completely remodeled,  reconfigured, and expanded the property.