Boyd Gaming Corp. never reopened its Eastside Cannery property after Nevada casinos were closed for 78 days in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, the Las Vegas-based company has made a decision about what to do with the 17-year-old property and its 16-story tower that houses 307 hotel rooms: demolish it and turn the land into a residential development.
Boyd officials on Friday confirmed their intention in a brief email.
“It has been more than five years since we closed the Eastside Cannery, and there is not sufficient market demand to reopen the facility,” Boyd’s statement said. “With this in mind, we are finalizing plans to demolish the building. We are currently discussing selling the site for residential use.”
For years, the company has been waiting and watching market conditions in East Las Vegas along Boulder Highway where Boyd has its Sam’s Town development to the north and is replacing its Henderson Joker’s Wild Casino with Cadence Crossing to the south.
Boyd operates 10 locals and casinos in downtown Las Vegas in southern Nevada.
The company broke ground on Cadence Crossing in April, two months after it announced the decision to buy the 29.5 acres on which the resort stood from former Eastside Cannery operator Bill Wortman for $45 million. In February, Boyd did not say what was in store for the property, which first opened its doors on August 28, 2008.
Boyd acquired Eastside Cannery and its sister property in North Las Vegas, the Cannery, for $230 million in 2016.
In addition to its hotel rooms, the Eastside Cannery had a 64,000-square-foot casino, several bars and restaurants, a 16th-floor club, a 250-seat lounge, and 20,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space.
After the building’s covid-19 closure in 2020, Boyd maintained it by investing more than half a million dollars a month to run utilities inside and keep IT and security systems safe and working.
In the letter to Clark County, Boyd said the Three Square Food Bank used the property as a weekly food distribution site during the pandemic, and police and firefighters used it for training exercises.
The Metropolitan Police Department conducted more than a dozen training exercises at the Eastside Cannery, including room clearance, active shooter scenarios and cadet seminars. Criminal investigators also used hotel rooms as part of their academy testing.
The Clark County Fire Department also used the property for stairwell training and to practice room searches and elevator rescues.
The planned demolition of Eastside Cannery marks the last divestment of casino property in the Las Vegas Valley since the massive shutdowns due to covid-19. Red Rock Resorts eventually sold and demolished three of its properties: North Las Vegas Texas Station and Fiesta Rancho and Henderson’s Fiesta Henderson. The North Las Vegas properties are being transformed into a plaza as Henderson government leaders review what is planned at Fiesta Henderson.
The only standing but still closed casino property from the covid shutdown is the Colorado Belle on the Colorado River in Laughlin.
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