Historic Vegas casino makes way for modern day
The iconic New Frontier Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip is being demolished to make way for a new mega-resort in the legendary Nevada gambling spot.
Now reduced to a pile of dust, the destruction of the 16-storey New Frontier Hotel & Casino is part of a massive makeover of the northern Strip and took 1,000lbs of explosives to fell.
The Wild West-themed resort was only the second casino built on the Strip in the Nevada Desert and the New Frontier Hotel & Casino was the site of Elvis Presley’s Las Vegas debut in 1956, but became known for cheap rooms and cheap entertainment towards the end of its life.
Developers IDB Group and Elad Group are planning to open a vast new $8 billion complex on the site in 2011 under the Plaza brand.
The New Frontier Hotel & Casino was the first themed hotel in Las Vegas, spawning numerous copies and playing host to acts as diverse as Wayne Newton, Siegfried and Roy, and Ronald Regan. Opened in 1942, it played with a space age theme before returning to the Wild West.
A host of glitzy new casino developments are underway in Las Vegas, including the CityCenter from MGM Mirage, Wynn Resorts’ Encore and the Echelon from Boyd Gaming.