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Last words on the New Frontier: “It’s unbelievable what he’s done with the place falling apart”
July 14, 2007
The New Frontier goes the way of all frontiers sometime this weekend, no one knows quite sure just when. The RJ has an encomium, along with a think-piece on what might happen to bull-ridin’, mud-wrestlin’ Gilley’s, the prime attraction of the fly-blown barfly on the Strip.
The second-oldest of the old joints, the New Frontier was built in 1942. It was sold as dirt — the structures will be imploded and replaced by a new multi-use resort themed after New York’s Plaza Hotel. But the dirt sold for $34 million an acre. They should mount doomsday clocks at the Sahara, the Riviera and Circus-Circus. Two seemingly more likely candidates for reinvention, Casino Royale and Bill’s Gambling Hall (nee Barbary Coast), have the advantage of bookending the Harrah’s Empire, so they may hang in there a little longer.
Even so, the Strip is shipping the low-rollers elsewhere. It would be nice if Downtown could pick up the slack, but it’s probably off-Strip resorts like the Gold Coast, SouthPoint and the Orleans that will benefit.
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