Ahern Hotel
Ahern Luxury Boutique Hotel is a boutique hotel and former casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The resort is located on of land at 300 West Sahara Avenue, near the Las Vegas Strip.
Ahern Luxury Boutique Hotel is adjacent to the Allure Las Vegas high-rise condominium, opened in 2008 by developer Andrew Fonfa. The resort's property was once planned as the site of a second Allure tower, which was cancelled due to poor economic conditions. While selling units in the first tower, Fonfa decided to build a hotel and casino on the adjacent site. The Lucky Dragon was designed by Ed Vance & Associates Architects and was announced in February 2012, with groundbreaking in May 2015. The resort had a soft opening on November 19, 2016. An official grand opening was held on December 3, 2016.
The Lucky Dragon was heavily inspired by Asian concepts in an effort to appeal to Asian customers, who were expected to be the resort's primary customer base. With 203 rooms and a casino, the Lucky Dragon was considered small in comparison to nearby competitors on the Las Vegas Strip. After experiencing low customer turnout, the Lucky Dragon's casino and restaurants were temporarily closed in January 2018 so the property could reorganize, while the hotel remained open. The hotel subsequently closed on October 2, 2018. It was sold in April 2019, to Don Ahern, who reopened the hotel later that year as Ahern Hotel. Ahern also planned to convert the casino into conference and convention space.
History
Original plans
The resort is located on of land at 300 West Sahara Avenue, a block west of the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip, an area that had become known for a number of vacant lots, older resorts, and failed projects. The property is located between the Golden Steer restaurant and the Allure Las Vegas condominium high-rise tower. Developer Andrew Fonfa had initially purchased the property as part of a five-acre parcel in 1987. At the time, Fonfa planned to build a hotel on the property, as he expected Circus Circus Enterprises to construct the Excalibur Hotel and Casino nearby, thus increasing tourism for the northern Las Vegas Strip. The Excalibur was ultimately built at the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip.In May 2002, Fonfa proposed the Hilton Garden Inn, an eight-story Hilton-branded 200-room hotel with an attached casino that would be located on the property's east side. Hilton considered Fonfa's property to be a desirable location for one of their hotels, and approached him about a possible deal, although discussions were still preliminary at the time of the project's announcement. Under the partnership, Fonfa would own the hotel and casino, while Hilton would manage the hotel and would have no involvement in the casino operations. Fonfa was in negotiations with GE Capital to finance the project, and hoped to begin construction at the end of the year, with completion scheduled in 15 months. Construction was expected to cost $50 million. Four small commercial buildings located on the property were to be torn down to make room for the new resort. Fonfa changed his mind about the hotel-casino project after speaking with Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman and several city officials, stating that high-rise condominiums "is what the city wanted as part of its plan for residential living". In 2004, Fonfa was approved for plans to construct twin condominium towers on the property.
The Allure tower was opened in early 2008. The site of the Lucky Dragon had initially been planned for the second Allure tower, which was later cancelled because of poor sales caused by the Great Recession, and because of an oversupply of condominium high-rises on the Las Vegas Strip. To help sell units in the first Allure tower, Fonfa said that in 2008, "We realized we were going to need cash buyers. We went to LA and San Francisco and Vancouver and San Jose and put ads in all the Chinese newspapers in those communities. And we were very pleased with what came back, which was over 100 units sold to Chinese buyers." At that point, Fonfa then devised an idea to build a hotel and casino on the property originally planned for the second tower. In 2008, Fonfa and his sister, Gudren, revealed plans for a potential hotel-casino on the property adjacent to Allure. The $1.2 billion resort would be called Q, standing for "queer", and would cater to gay and lesbian people. The 45-story hotel would include 1,000 rooms, and would be managed by Wyndham. Fonfa did not formally announce the project as it was unclear when the American credit market would recover.
The Lucky Dragon project was later announced for the property in February 2012, as a 10-story hotel tower with 201 rooms and an casino, with 478 slot machines and a 446-space parking garage. The hotel-casino would be developed by Fonfa, and an Asian theme was chosen for the project as it was being financed by Chinese investors. The Lucky Dragon was designed by Ed Vance & Associates Architects.
Construction and financing
The Lucky Dragon was built by Penta Building Group, which worked on the project with its development manager, Grand Canyon Development Partners. Both companies worked closely with city planning officials to re-categorize the property as a single parcel rather than as phase two of Allure. As part of the effort, several lots were sold to Lucky Dragon LLP in order to develop the resort. Groundbreaking on the Lucky Dragon began in May 2015, with the pouring of the resort's foundation. The boutique hotel would contain nine stories, while the casino was expected to contain two stories. Work crews faced difficulties in pouring the concrete due to the heat during the Las Vegas summer. To avoid the heat, several concrete pours were completed during early morning hours, which resulted in noisy equipment for nearby businesses and residents directly north of the property. Material deliveries to the construction site also resulted in inconveniences for local residents, who received gift cards as compensation for the disruptions. After the hotel's lower portion was complete, construction crews added an additional floor every week. The hotel tower was topped out on September 11, 2015. The casino and six-story parking garage were still under construction at that time, with the resort expected to open in summer 2016. The project was being financed by funds through the United States federal government's EB-5 program, which offered foreign investors the possibility of U.S. residency.On November 16, 2015, Fonfa and development partner William Weidner – the former president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands, and one of the Lucky Dragon's backers – requested approval for tax increment financing from the Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency, in order to receive a bank loan to continue construction on the project, which had already raised $60 million through the EB-5 program. On November 18, 2015, the Las Vegas City Council rejected Fonfa and Weidner's request for $25 million in subsidies to help finance the $139 million project, which was expected to open in August 2016. Approximately 3,600 jobs associated with the ongoing project were lost due to the decision.
Work on the hotel's roof and parapet was expected to begin in December 2015. The following month, framing and drywall installation was underway, as well as the installation of the hotel's exterior curtain wall. The wall, designed by EV&A Architects and installed by Giroux Glass, Inc., was made of ruby red glazing. The Lucky's Dragon's project manager, Paul Dutmer, said, "To get this particular color of red, we went through several dozen testing samples. Once the sun hits it, it will be a bright red that will be hard not to see." The hotel tower was expected to be fully enclosed and waterproofed by the end of January 2016.
In May 2016, it was announced that the project had received full financing from Fonfa and Weidner's families. Construction was approximately 70 percent complete at that time, with the resort expected to open in the fourth quarter of 2016. It was later reported that the project's financing was through a $90 million loan issued to Fonfa by Snow Covered Capital, which initially provided a $30 million loan for construction and a $15 million revolving loan. Snow Covered Capital was the primary lender in the project. Through the EB-5 program, 179 foreign investors each provided $500,000 for a total of $89.5 million. They also each paid a $50,000 administrative fee.
The Lucky Dragon was planned to be the first Las Vegas resort to offer an "authentic Asian lifestyle experience". James Weidner, the son of William, was the managing principal of the Lucky Dragon. James Weidner stated that he was partly inspired to join the project because of trips that he took with his father to China. James Weidner stated that the project "presented an opportunity to do something here that really respects the culture directly and approaches the Asian market, which is really powerful." Feng shui experts and design consultants were hired to ensure the entire resort had an authentic Asian appearance.
David Jacoby, chief operating officer for the resort, said during construction that, "This whole place has been very specifically feng shui'd, from the color patterns, to the carpets, to where the seats are, to where the cash is. There will be no fourth floor in the hotel - that's a superstition similar to what we have in the United States with the number 13. There's no number 4 anywhere on the property. Our phone numbers don't have a 4 in it. People in the front of the house of the resort will speak Mandarin, Cantonese and other Asian dialects. Signage is in Chinese first, English second. What we're trying to do is build an authentic cultural experience from the ground-up for Asian clientele, both locally and regionally throughout the United States." The resort's granite sidewalks were designed to imitate dragon scales. Ahead of its opening, Fonfa described the Lucky Dragon as a locals casino that would primarily rely on local Asian residents as its clientele, as well as Asian tourists from China and California. Fonfa expected local residents to account for 60 percent of the Lucky Dragon's customers. Las Vegas Weekly wrote that the Lucky Dragon, with its large focus on Asian customers, "might be the most specifically focused casino project in the history of Las Vegas".