My piece on the Riviera is out in Vegas Seven as of yesterday. Busy day, so I didn’t have time to post this. It’s this week’s Green Felt Journal:
As destroy/erase/improve gives way to rework/repaint/recycle, older Las Vegas hotels that a few years ago might have been imploded have gotten new leases on life. Over the past year, both the Tropicana and Plaza have been thoroughly revamped after each had been bandied about as a possible demolition candidate. Now it is the Riviera’s turn for a makeover, and the ultimate fate of the property could reveal much about the next decade or more of Strip development.
I think the Riviera is an interesting test case for what many properties are going to face in the next 10-20 years. I don’t see the need for implosions and new construction coming back anytime soon, so the question is, how do Strip casinos age gracefully? At the other end of the spectrum, the Bellagio’s facing the same dilemma.
As far as changes, I like some of what I see, and I don’t like other things. Bingo’s a great idea. Keeping prices low is a great idea. Changing the names of Kady’s and Kristofer’s–not such a good idea. At a time when everything strange and idiosyncratic about Las Vegas seems to be disappearing, I don’t know why they replaced those names with standouts like “Poolside Cafe” and “R(iviera) Steakhouse.” I can only hope they’re not placeholders before they bring in Bahama Breeze and Lone Star to run them.
I might do another blog post about the Riviera soon–I have a number of observations about the place that didn’t make it into the column, and I’d like to share them.