Las Vegas History Timelines III

Added on March 26, 2024, in Las Vegas by Gambling Gurus

Las Vegas History Timelines III | 1994 to 1999

The Flamingo Hotel is owned by the Caesars Entertainment Corp. today and still holds onto that Miami theme this spot was always known for.

Following the development of the Flamingo, in 1955 a number of high-rise hotels and casinos were developed, starting with the Riviera Hotel. The Tropicana is one of these casinos still standing today from this development period.

The Moulin Rouge hotel and Casino came out around this time period. This is where entertainment in the resorts became popular as they featured a kind of strip show.

Continued From: Las Vegas History Timelines ~ Part II

A dust storm pops up every now and then an tosses around a few of the remaining tumbleweeds that are slowly disappearing due to the building boom starting to take shape!

1994 Continued – Sam’s Town on Boulder Highway expands with the opening of a 650-room tower and lush, plant-filled atrium. A 300-room hotel-casino named Boomtown opens on Blue Diamond Road at I-15. Four skywalks are built over the intersection of Tropicana Boulevard and the Las Vegas Strip. McCarran opens the Interstate-15 airport connector road system that tunnels under the east-west runways. The Fiesta, the first hotel-casino in North Las Vegas opens with 100 rooms.

1995 – Vegas World closes its doors February 1st for work on the casino complex and the Stratosphere Tower. The first Hard Rock Hotel opens March 10th. The $25 million dollar monorail system begins running between the MGM Grand and Bally’s Hotel casinos on June 14th. Bill Bennett retires from Circus Circus Enterprises, then buys
the Sahara Hotel-Casino from Paul and Sue Lowden. ITT Corp. buys Caesars World Inc. for $1.7 billion, including Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. Construction begins on Steve Wynn’s 46-story, $1.7 billion 3,000-room Bellagio, located at the intersection of Flamingo Road and the Las Vegas Strip.

1995 Continued – Circus Circus Enterprises buys the Hacienda and surrounding 100 acres. The face of downtown Las Vegas changes forever with the December 13 opening of the $70 million Fremont Street Experience. Las Vegas reports a 29 million visitor volume for the year. Statewide gross gaming revenue surpasses $7.3 billion. Clark County produced $5.7 billion of the state’s gaming revenue total. The Landmark Hotel is imploded on November 7th.

1996 – Ground breaking ceremonies for the Las Vegas Hilton’s “Star Trek: The Experience” was held on January 24th. The $13 million Las Vegas Strip beautification project in which 76,000 palms, shrubs, flowering foliage and ground covers were planted, is finished in March. Wayne Newton celebrates his 25,000th Las Vegas performance. Work is completed on the Desert Inn Road arterial which creates the first tunnel under the Las Vegas Strip. The Stratosphere Tower which is the tallest free-standing observation tower in the United States and the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River opens on April 30th.

1996 Continued – The Hilton Hotels Corp. purchases Bally’s Entertainment Corp., the parent company of Bally’s hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip for $3 billion. Caesars Magical Empire, a multimillion dollar dining and entertainment complex opens in Caesars Palace on June 18th. The Monte Carlo, a joint venture between Circus Circus Enterprises Inc. and Mirage Resorts Inc. opens on June 21st. The $72 million dollar, 1,100-acre Las Vegas Motor Speedway with tracks for drag, stock car and formula car races opens in September. Clark County Commission grants building permits for the $500 million, 2,900-room Paris Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

1996 Continued – The Hyatt Hotel Corp. announced plans to build a 500-room hotel on the shores of Lake Las Vegas. Circus Circus Enterprises announces a joint venture with Four Seasons Regent to build a 400-room, five star non-gaming hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. The Sands Hotel, after 44 years of continuous operation, is closed June 30th by owner Sheldon Adelson who announces plans to build a 6,000-room mega-resort on the Las Vegas Strip site. The Sands tower was imploded on November 26th. The Flamingo Hilton celebrates its 50th anniversary. Caesars Palace celebrates its 30th anniversary.

1996 Continued – Ground breaking held for 3,000-room Planet Hollywood Hotel Casino adjacent to The Desert Inn at Sands Avenue and the Las Vegas Strip. Construction on the joint venture between ITT Corp. and Planet Hollywood was never started. Circus Circus implodes the Hacienda Hotel Casino on December 31st to make way for mega-resort. 29.6 million people visit Las Vegas in 1996; the State gross gaming revenue totals $7.45 billion and the Clark County population hits 1.1 million. Siegfried and Roy celebrate their 15,000th Las Vegas performance.

1997 – The Tropicana Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip celebrates its 40th anniversary. New York-New York Hotel Casino opens on the Las Vegas Strip on January 3rd. More than 100,000 people a day visit the new resort during the casino’s first days in operation. The Hilton Hotels Corp. makes a $10.5 billion hostile takeover move on January 28th against ITT Corp., which resists the bid. ITT shareholders reject Hilton’s takeover in favor of a more lucrative offer by Starwood Lodging. The deal involves ownership of Caesars Palace and The Desert Inn on the Las Vegas Strip.

1997 Continued – Sheldon Adelson breaks ground in April to build the 6,000-suite, $1.8 billion dollar Venetian Hotel and Resort on the grounds of the original Sands Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. Steve Wynn, builder of Las Vegas Strip mega-resorts, calls for a “go slow” approach to future expansion in Las Vegas. The U.S. Air Force celebrates its 50th anniversary in an unequaled display of military aviation might attended by 80 foreign, high-ranking NATO and Pacific Air command officials, and 300,000 spectators. Coca Cola Co. opens its World of Coca Cola store in the Showcase Mall marked by a 100-foot-tall glass Coca Cola bottle.

1997 Continued – The first non-stop scheduled commercial flight from Frankfurt-Mein International Airport in Germany lands at McCarran International Airport on May 7th with 215 passengers. The Sunset Station Hotel-Casino opened on June 10th. The Forum Shops at Caesars on August 29th opened 35 new shops, stores and restaurants in a 276,000-square-foot expansion. The growth doubles the size of the upscale shopping mall adjacent to Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. The Aladdin Hotel closes on the Las Vegas Strip on November 25th making way for a $1.2 billion gambling and hotel complex.

1997 Continued – Plans call for development of a Middle East-theme shopping center, a 2,600-room hotel as well as a joint venture with Planet Hollywood Inc. for development of a neighboring $250 million, 2,000-room music-theme resort. Planet Hollywood later dropped out of the deal in 1998. The Desert Inn Hotel Casino completes a $200 million renovation and expansion. The Owners change the name of the Boomtown Hotel Casino to Silverton after Majestic Realty Co. takes control of the struggling resort from Boomtown Inc.

1997 Continued – Harley Davidson Cafe opens on the Las Vegas Strip, continuing the theme restaurant proliferation. Caesars Palace opened a new tower in December. Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. buys Showboat Inc. in a $1.154 billion deal. The Frontier Hotel, owned by the Elardi family is sold to Phil Ruffin, a Kansas industrialist, for $165 million. The Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino opened Masquerade Village and the new 41-story, 1,025-room tower giving the resort a total of 2,556 suites.

1998 – “Star Trek: The Experience” opened on January 4th at the Las Vegas Hilton. Circus Circus officials announced that Mandalay Bay would be the name of the company’s new resort at the Strip and Russell Road. The hotel’s concept and working name was Project Paradise. Starwood Hotels & Resorts bought ITT Corp. for $14.6 billion. The purchase included the acquisition of Caesars Palace and The Desert Inn Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Eagle Canyon Airlines bought the Las Vegas-based Scenic Airlines. The Aladdin Hotel was imploded on April 27th. Northwest Airlines inaugurates non-stop service June 1st from Tokyo to Las Vegas.

1998 Continued – Japan Airlines inaugurates non-stop service on October 2nd from Tokyo to Las Vegas. Koren Airlines makes history in August with three non-stop charter flights from Seoul, Korea, to Las Vegas. Country Star restaurant on the Strip is acquired by Mirage Resorts Inc. and closes. The Bellagio Casino Resort, billed as the most expensive hotel in the world and at the time cost $1.7 billion, opened on October 15th on the Las Vegas Strip and initiates a policy barring persons under 18 years of age who are not registered guests of the hotel.

1998 Continued – The Las Vegas Convention Center opened a new expansion, boosting its total meeting and exhibit space to 1.9 million square feet. The Debbie Reynolds Hotel-Casino, a half block east of the Las Vegas Strip on Convention Center Drive, is sold at public auction on August 5th to the World Wresting Federation for $9.27 million. The Las Vegas Motor Speedway is sold in December by founders Bill Bennett and Ralph Englestad to North Carolina -based Speedway Motorsports Inc., headed by O. Bruton Smith, for $215 million.

1998 Continued – A 66-year-old Las Vegas resident hits a $27.58 million progressive Megabucks Jackpot on November 15th at the Palace Station Casino. The D-Gates opened at McCarran International Airport. Annual gross gaming revenue in Nevada hits the $8.1 billion dollar mark! The annual number of visitors to Las Vegas totaled 30.6 million people! On December 31st, the Hilton Hotels Corp. spins off its gaming division to Park Place Entertainment Corp., including the Las Vegas Hilton, Flamingo Hilton, Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas.

1999 – Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. purchases the Rio Hotel-Casino Inc. for $888 million on Jan. 1st. MGM Grand Inc. buys Primadonna Resorts Inc., taking 100 percent ownership of New York-New York Hotel-Casino on the Las Vegas Strip and Whiskey Pete’s, Buffalo Bill’s and Primm Valley Resort & Casino in Primm, NV on March 1st. The Mandalay Bay Casino Resort opened on March 2nd with 3,300 rooms. The Four Seasons Hotel opened on March 2nd with 424 rooms.

 

Related Articles:

Las Vegas History Timelines Part I

Las Vegas History Timelines Part II

Las Vegas History Timelines Part IV

Las Vegas History Timelines Part V