Tamares Group’s CEO Jonathan Jossel announced Friday that the aging Las Vegas Club has been sold to Derek and Greg Stevens, owners of the nearby the D Las Vegas and Golden Gate casinos.
Also Part of the deal was the Club’s 400-room hotel tower which has been closed since April 2013. The smaller of the company’s two casinos, the sale of the Las Vegas Club will allow the company to focus its attention on the Plaza Hotel and Casino which the group also owns. While Clark County records indicate a $40 million sale price, no mention of it or inclusions were made by Jossel.
While the hotel portion of the club has been closed for two years, PlayLV will continue to operate the casinos several hundred slot machines and 19 table games until it closes for renovations according to Jossel. Approval of the sale by Nevada gaming regulators won’t be necessary since the gaming aspects were not acquired, according to Derek Stevens.
An announcement by the Las Vegas Club in May 2015, of its intent to open a 13,810-square-foot pharmacy that would sell packaged liquor on the eastern side of the casino was strongly opposed by neighboring casinos. Packaged liquor consumption on public property is illegal and an ongoing concern and efforts to curb the activity were initiated last summer by the city. According to Jossel the liquor store was just part of “many components” of what was envisioned for the Las Vegas Club by Tamares. However, knowledge of interest in the property by the Stevens brothers and desire to focus on the Plaza were factors of the sale and not opposition to the pharmacy/liquor store plan.
The Stevens brothers have been “pretty aggressive” in acquiring downtown casinos according to UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research director, David Schwartz, who said he wasn’t surprised by the sale which has bigger implications. Whether or not the Stevens brothers will become the new kings of Freemont Street remains to be seen, but the sale of and attention to an iconic Downtown establishment is an anticipated positive for the city of Las Vegas.