From busboy to vice president, Joe Yalda has had a remarkable rise through the ranks at Red Rock Resort, where he started working at the age of 16 when it opened on April 18, 2006.
Yalda, 36, is one of 206 day one team members still employed at Red Rock as Station Casino’s luxury property in Summerlin celebrates its 20th anniversary.
“If you had told me when I was 16 years old I’d still be working here as a vice president of leadership, I probably would have laughed at you,” Yalda remarked in Red Rock’s glitzy 1920s-inspired Rouge Room lounge. “But that’s the nice thing about Station Casinos. Once you get into this business, if you really have the drive, the sky’s the limit for you. You get to choose your own path.”
The Red Rock is the largest station property, in terms of rooms, with 796, and it remains the most expensive off-Strip hotel-casino ever built. It cost $925 million to build and that figure has eclipsed $1 billion after “well into nine figures of reinvestment in the property,” general manager Jordan Seager said.
“You walk in this property. It’s beautiful. It doesn’t look 20 years old,” said Seager, 40. “That’s what’s special about Red Rock. It may be 20 years old but it still feels like everything is brand new.”
More than 3 million Swarovski crystals sparkle in chandeliers throughout the property, which also showcases polished sandstone, blown glass and 5,400 square feet of multicolored onyx imported from India and Italy. Red Rock also has more than $6 million worth of water features and what is billed as the world’s most expensive bowling center, with a $31 million price tag.
“When it comes to a luxury resort on the local side, I think that’s the standard, I would say comfortable, in the United States,” said Yalda, Red Rock’s vice president of guest experience. “A good comparable for us would be your Wynns and Venetians. We pride ourselves on having the same caliber of properties of that size that are absolutely phenomenal.”
Celebration
Red Rock will celebrate its 20th anniversary on Saturday at 6-9pm with the inaugural Taste of Station, a poolside culinary showcase featuring more than 20 food and beverage outlets from across Station Casino’s portfolio. It also features a poolside performance by Journey on the Sandbar stage on April 29. Tickets for both events are sold out.
The property also hosted two gala dinners for its 2,200 employees, including one to honor team members on their first day.
The first team member at Red Rock was Debbie Armstrong, the executive assistant to the general manager — Seager is her sixth — who shared a trailer with Station Casino owners and brothers Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta when the Summerlin property was under construction.
“They’re good people to work with. If you can trust someone, you have to stay there,” Armstrong said. “A couple of years into it, I said, ‘I love it. I’m going to stay here until I retire.” And I still think that.
“I love the culture. I love our values and our commitment to excellence and integrity. The biggest one is that we don’t tolerate racism. I love that.”
Lucky Penny food server Annie Valdez has been at Red Rock since day one, after working eight years at Palace Station, and is also a big fan of the company culture and owners.
“The people and the culture here are just amazing,” she said. “The people from 20 years ago to two weeks ago, everyone bonds perfectly. Just the atmosphere is amazing. It’s been an amazing journey for me, and the Fertitta family is over the top. I put them on a pedestal.
“The company is very transparent, the honesty and openness that they have with the whole team. There are no secrets. Everything is out there and we all work on everything together.”
Bartender Charles Rogers has also been at Red Rock since day one and said he loves the hands-on management style, open-door policy and merit system there.
“I’m very vocal and they’re willing to listen,” said Rogers, 48. “Even if it doesn’t go in my favor, at least I can be heard. I can get some answers. It’s always been very, very good for me.
“It feels like I matter. My voice matters. And my voice is pretty big.”
Rock on
The Red Rock underwent a $35 million expansion in 2014 to coincide with the opening of the adjacent Downtown Summerlin, and in 2015 installed an LED video wall in the sports book that is 18 feet high and 96 feet wide. It also remodeled its cinema late last year amid property-wide upgrades.
Legendary Las Vegas restaurant Lotus of Siam opened at Red Rock in 2022, and Hearthstone restaurant recently returned to the property. There are three projects under construction in the food court to bring in Randy’s Donuts, the popular Los Angeles donut shop; Good Pie, a local pizza restaurant; and With Love, Always, a popular smash burger joint.
“We’ve done some remodeling and brought all these great culinary experiences to the community that we didn’t have before,” Yalda said. “But for the most part, Red Rock is what it was 20 years ago — that ultra-luxury, integrated resort off the Strip that really rivals anything in the industry at this point 20 years later.”
Yalda said Red Rock also rolled the dice by adding a private gaming lounge previously only found on The Strip that caters to high rollers. The investment has paid off.
“We took a risk putting it in there but we’ve been able to fill it with super advanced guests,” he said. “They’re willing to travel. Also, what’s nice about where we are, we’re lucky because we’re surrounded by the wealthiest zip codes in the city.
“I remember when we first opened we got a lot of feedback, ‘How do you get people to come 20 minutes from The Strip?’ I think the question now is, ‘How do you get people to go to The Strip?'”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@ theplayerlounge.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.
