Riviera Renovations Continue

 parchedearth posted on Tuesday, 22nd May 2012 - 2:04 pm

At best, they are treading water and the money they have spent to date has been a waste. I am not sure how long they can keep the property afloat. IMO, the pub is their best feature and that isn't saying much. I wish it wasn't so, but none of their improvements has made an appreciable difference.

 vespajet posted on Tuesday, 22nd May 2012 - 2:14 pm

Unfortunately for the folks at the Riv, that neck of the woods is a ghost town. They're really going to have to work to attract folks since it's just them and Circus Circus open on that end of the Strip. With the Sahara now closed and with Fontainebleau and Echelon stuck in a holding pattern for at least a couple of more years (I still think that the Fontainebleau tower will never open and will be eventually dismantled.) plus the canceled Majestic/Conrad/Waldorf project on neighboring property (The land was sold to a company called Triple Five [They own the West Edmonton Mall in Canada as well as the Mall Of America in Minneapolis and have a pretty diversified portfolio.] about four years ago as part of a proposed project that is likely dead as well.).

By the time Echelon opens, the Sahara/SLS reopens, and somebody does something with Fontainebleau, the old Wet-N-Wild site, the land next to the Riv and the land MGM owns across from the Sahara, the Riv will need another renovation....

 JakeZ posted on Tuesday, 22nd May 2012 - 2:14 pm

They've also painted the building. Gone is that dirty-looking pinkish color, and now each of the towers is white.

Hopefully, they also put some money into the Strip-front entrance area. It looks just as abandoned as its neighbors the way it is now.

 levans posted on Tuesday, 22nd May 2012 - 3:49 pm

I appreciate their willingness to improve what most consider nothing more than a hole but with the area around it being so bare I wonder if the effort is worth it.

 Okie21 posted on Tuesday, 22nd May 2012 - 5:38 pm

"barely used vestibule near the rear entrance." Am I the only one who laughed at that line? No, just me?

 SalSagev posted on Wednesday, 23rd May 2012 - 2:21 pm

It took about 10 trips to Vegas, but we finally decided to set foot inside the joint to look around on a Saturday evening this past February. The lack of people in the casino was very startling. Minus the employees .... maybe a hundred people at the most. The strip was crowded, the Deuce was jammed packed and Fremont was rocking that night. It was quite the contrast to the nearly empty Riviera.

 yuelulu posted on Wednesday, 23rd May 2012 - 3:33 pm

The Riv has / had so much potential....easy access strip frontage, walls of glass onto the strip, strip frontage rooftop pool (apparently it leaked...fix it!) etc. Stayed there a few years back. It was nothing fancy but perfectly acceptable. Hope they make it. Maybe they can try and steal the beer pong crowd from Osheas.

The place has certainly gone downhill. But have to wonder....was it a good idea by the planning folk (whoever they are) to allow the demo of stardust, frontier, ho, slipper, wet n wild...within such a short time of eachother. Would a little restraint have helped, or even have been possible? sigh....would of, could of, should of

 vespajet posted on Wednesday, 23rd May 2012 - 3:34 pm

I swung by there when I was out there last March (2011) and while it was early afternoon on a Thursday, the place was pretty dead. I had lunch at the Queen Vic and was one of a handful of customers the entire time I was there. Meanwhile Circus Circus and Slot-A-Fun had more patrons.

 brt374 posted on Thursday, 24th May 2012 - 12:50 am

After moving out here in Feb., I began walking thru some of the older casinos that I'd not had the time or interest to visit in my past visits as a tourist. Coming in from the self park garage to the backside of the Riv, I was shocked to see what seemed a very temporary-looking check-in desk. Sure they've dressed it up with some columns wrapped with photos of "Classic Riv" headliners (mostly from the 50s-70s). But it was a stark contrast to the over-the-top, gold lobby of years past that I recalled from my one previous visit there. I sought out the former lobby and everything was boarded up...a sad state of affairs. To their credit, I guess they've realized their primary guests aren't jetting in these days; they're locals or others with cars, so it sadly makes sense to relocate the lobby back by the self park and convention centre.

I walked the majority of the property and I'd actually like to stay here for old time's sake, except for their resort fee. Sure, the towers look old and run-down, but it beats the Imperial Palace or Circus Circus, IMHO.