Casino boss Derek Stevens now owns another piece of Las Vegas history.
Stevens confirmed in an interview that he acquired the land under the downtown Golden Gate hotel-casino. His $19 million purchase closed last week, property records show.
Stevens has long owned and operated the historic Fremont Street property. As he explained it, he bought the land from descendants of John F. Miller, who in the early 1900s built the Hotel Nevada where the Golden Gate now stands.
The family sold the land to Stevens through a business entity – originally formed in 1908 – called the Sal Sagev Hotel Co. Inc., according to county and state records.
Hotel Nevada’s name was changed in 1931 to Sal Sagev, which is Las Vegas spelled backwards.
Sal Sagev Hotel Co. President James Reynolds — who, according to Stevens, is Miller’s great-grandson — could not be reached for comment.
“Cost us a lot of money”
Miller, who died in 1957, acquired the site for his hotel at the 1905 land auction that kick-started Las Vegas, Stevens said. The hotel opened the following year.
San Francisco investors eventually opened the Golden Gate Casino on the site in the 1950s.
Stevens and his brother acquired a 50 percent stake in the hotel casino nearly 20 years ago and took full ownership of the Golden Gate in 2015.
A visible casino executive, Stevens also owns D Las Vegas and Circa, a flashy resort he opened in 2020 as downtown’s first new-build resort in four decades.
Stevens said he got to know Carolyn Reynolds, Miller’s granddaughter, when he first acquired a stake in Golden Gate. At that time, he said, they agreed to extend the lease until 2061.
He said he always wanted to buy the Golden Gate land from the original owners, but they were not interested in selling.
Stevens thought they wanted to make sure the site was in good hands, adding that he has treated Golden Gate well and invested in the property.
It “cost us a lot of money” to buy the land, said Stevens, who added that he would rather own the footprint than lease it from an outside real estate investment trust, as many resorts on the Strip now do.
History of Vegas
The Golden Gate, at 1 Fremont St., is a compact property on the western edge of the rooftop Fremont Street Experience.
In 2012, its ownership group added a five-story hotel building to the property, saying this marked the Golden Gate’s first major expansion in 50 years. In 2017, Stevens unveiled other upgrades, including a larger casino floor and a Jazz Age-inspired entrance.
He also promotes the Golden Gate’s place in Las Vegas history.
As described on the Golden Gate website, Las Vegas’ first telephone was installed at the hotel in 1907; The hotel installed an outdoor electric sign in 1927, a precursor to Las Vegas’ famous neon lights; and the hotel introduced Las Vegas’ original shrimp cocktail in 1959.
Today, vintage black-and-white photos of Rat Pack members and others adorn the walls of the casino. Display cases near the hotel’s check-in desk also serve as an in-house museum.
It has towels from the 1930s, a room key and telephone directory from Sal Sagev; 1950s chip racks and promotional liquor bottles; 1960s casino uniforms; and wooden pipes that held the original line for Las Vegas’ first telephone.
There’s also a display that notes the hotel’s original phone number: “1.”
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@ theplayerlounge.com or 702-383-0342.
