The old Las Vegas Strip has nearly disappeared, and many of the remaining ties to its past are being torn down or slated for a wrecking ball.
That's because the price of land and the cost of operating on the Strip are so high that properties that once made financial sense have become obsolete. Smaller hotels and casinos can simply no longer justify their existence if a megaproperty can replace them.
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Hawaiian Marketplace, a longtime Strip fixture offering kitschy shops and food stalls, was purchased and demolished in 2023 to make way for a massive new 95-foot-tall retail and restaurant complex. A hotel and casino have been rumored, but not confirmed, for the property.
Another small-scale operation, Casino Royale, nestled in the heart of the area dominated by Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International (MGM) , will also soon be demolished. Its small casino and 152-room Best Western will make way for a huge tower.
Whereas the Strip used to be dotted with motels, it's now dominated by megaresorts.
One of the last holdouts, a nod to Las Vegas' past with an iconic Pink Elephant greeting visitors, has closed, and the process of auctioning off the property has begun.
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A Las Vegas legend has seen its last day
Caesars' Flamingo, built in 1946, currently stands as the oldest resort casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The Tropicana, for which demolition is set to begin in April, is more than a decade younger, having been built in 1957.
The Diamond Inn Motel, which has been closed since last year, represents a piece of Las Vegas Strip history that will cease to exist when it gets torn down.
"Built in 1940 the Diamond Inn Motel (then it was called the Desert Isle Motel) is one of the oldest buildings still standing on the strip, which several decades ago the strip was called Arrowhead Highway/Highway 91," the company said on its website. "The first hotel/casino built on the strip was called the El Rancho Vegas Hotel & Casino built in 1941."
In those days, most of the casinos operating on the Strip did not have attached hotels.
"Later in the '40's and 50’s, dozens of motels were built next door, the Mirage, Lone Palm, Desert Rose and many others that were the high points of Old Vegas with their glittering neon signs," the website said.
Las Vegas Strip's Pink Elephant deserves a better fate
Diamond Inn is being auctioned off by J.P. King, a company that specializes in real estate auctions. A minimum bid of $12.5 million has been set for the property, which offers 1.36 acres of land with 237 feet of Las Vegas Strip frontage.
"Zoned H-1 for hotel/casino use, with approved buildable heights reaching skyward between 406 to 505 feet, the estate promises a future as dazzling as its past," the auction company says on its website.
"It boasts more road frontage than the nearby Paris, MGM Grand, and Venetian, and sits directly opposite Mandalay Bay, Luxor, and Excalibur, placing it at the heart of Las Vegas’ ceaseless energy. The Diamond Inn is walking distance to all major attractions, making it an excellent and rare investment opportunity for a world-class resort in a prime location."
The property went up for bid on March 7 and the auction includes a unique piece of Las Vegas history: Diamond Inn's Pink Elephant statue.
"The pink elephant came from Disney World, probably in the 50’s. He used to trumpet loudly, but the noise caused some accidents. Because of that, the county made the owner take the sound mechanism out," Diamond Inn said.
Update: While the Diamond Inn website does make the claim that the elephant came from Disney World, that can't be true because the Florida theme park did not open until 1971. It may have come from Disneyland which opened in 1955.
J.P. King will close the auction on March 14.
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