There was no tender loving care put into the property at the time we took over. It is one of the many properties downtown that was blighted and mismanaged and no one was paying attention to the operation. “It was a lot of hard work to clean that place up. Many used it as a place of shelter rather than a place to frequent and spend money, he said. Most of the people had a backpack or were carrying a bag. The best way to describe the Gold Spike is that it had a tough crowd and had for a while, Crandall said. We had a vision when the property became available to us, and we kind of saw potential in downtown and in the property.” Most of the buildings downtown were in pretty bad shape. “At the time we bought Gold Spike in January 2008, the revitalization of downtown hadn’t even started yet. It was an eyesore,” said Michael Crandall, senior vice president with the Siegel Group. That modernized look at the Gold Spike remains in place today minus the slots and gaming that were removed when the Downtown Project acquired the property from Siegel in April 2013. It also acquired the shuttered Travel Inn Motel next door, which it renovated, built a pool and combined the neighboring properties. Three years later it was acquired by Greg Covin and in 2008 the Siegel Group acquired it and gave it a much-needed renovation. The seven-story hotel-casino opened in 1976 and was later acquired in 1983 by long-time casino operator Jackie Gaughan, who sold it to Barrick Gaming in 2004. We need the co-work space and a cool place to hang out with your friends.” There’s plenty of gaming down here already, but there wasn’t great co-working space and type of nightlife space that the Gold Spike is. “I think in terms of what the Downtown Project was looking to do is that a casino didn’t fit the idea of first, unique and best. “The idea at the Gold Spike was to create something that’s a dual use of co-working space by day and turn it into a party at night,” said Maria Phelan, public relations director for the Downtown Project. It has 86 hotel rooms between the two and there are also some apartments in the Gold Spike. The revitalization project includes $200 million for real estate and development and ownership of 11 businesses it owns and operates, including the Gold Spike, and its companion property, the three-story boutique motel Oasis at the Gold Spike. This latest edition of the Gold Spike is part of the vision of the Downtown Project in Las Vegas, a $350 million initiative of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. “And if the eSports lounge works, you would definitely see more of that.” “It’s nice to have a place for people to have other things to do,” Schwartz said. The Downtown Grand has an eSports lounge and Schwartz said he expects to see more nongaming options because while people want to come to Las Vegas to gamble, not everything can be centered on slot machines. It had to reach out and do something else and this shows that.” “With the proliferation of other gambling options around the country and especially in Southern California, it couldn’t just be the value-oriented gambling operation. “I think what’s happening there says a lot about where downtown Las Vegas is going,” said David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at UNLV. There’s even roller skating every third Wednesday. That’s where visitors can play on an adult playground with a giant chessboard, soccer pool, Twister, giant Jenga, giant Connect Four, giant beer pong and other games. You can eat at the diner or play cornhole beanbag toss with your friends.Īt night, a DJ performs inside, known as the living room, and a band plays Thursday through Saturday in the outdoor courtyard known as the backyard. It’s a place to go during the day, sit on the couch and access Wi-Fi to get some work done or a place to hold meetings with workers from the office. The Gold Spike of today is geared for a generation that combines work and play. 1 description by many was smoke-filled dive for the one-time casino that opened in 1976 and has gone through several owners and an extensive remodel and change of use under its last two. The hotel-casino offered cheap rooms and slots for the value-oriented gambler. No one would have dared uttered those words a decade or two ago about the Gold Spike in downtown Las Vegas. Gold Spike, with new design and ownership by Downtown Project, will celebrate its third year this May. A close up of Four Square game space is shown at Gold Spike Tuesday, March 22, 2016, in Las Vegas.
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