El Rancho implosion marks end of an era

Lisa Snedeker

Monday, Oct. 2, 2000 | 2:27 a.m.

The Las Vegas Strip is losing another piece of history early Tuesday morning with the implosion of the El Rancho hotel-casino.

The 2:30 a.m. scheduled demise of one of the oldest properties on Las Vegas Boulevard comes a little more than a month after the historic Desert Inn resort closed its doors.

"We blow up losers," said Bill Thompson, gambling industry expert and University of Nevada, Las Vegas, professor. "The one thing we don't want to portray is that we have a loser in Vegas. Nobody loses in Vegas."

But the El Rancho did.

The property was shuttered in 1992 because of losses and has stood vacant ever since.

Florida-based Turnberry Associates, the developer of the adjacent upscale, $600 million Turnberry Place condominium project, in May bought the deteriorating 52-year-old property that had become a long-standing eyesore.

Las Vegas-based LVI Environmental Services Inc. and Maryland-based Controlled Demolition Inc. were responsible for demolishing the 13-story building. Company officials said they planned to use 700 pounds of dynamite for the implosion, which was to last about 20 seconds.

LVI rented all of the rooms Monday at the El Rancho's nearest neighbor - the Algiers Hotel - primarily for dust control, said Burt Fried, LVI president.

Bruce Weiner, Turnberry president, said the implosion is part of the overall property cleanup to make it a first-class property for the condominiums' 700-plus residents. The El Rancho was in clear sight of the high-end condos - the first phase of which is set to open in December, with a 40-story, 184-unit tower.

The property owners weren't the only ones happy to see the ghost town turned to rubble.

"This has been a thorn in the side of the other property owners and Metro (police)," said Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams.

Turnberry paid defunct New Jersey company International Thoroughbred Breeders $45 million for the El Rancho.

Company officials have not announced what they plan to build on the property after the demolition. Options being considered include the development of a hotel-casino or a time-share property.

The first El Rancho, built across on the street on the southwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue in 1942, was destroyed by fire in 1960.

The current site was developed in 1948 as the Thunderbird and later became the Silverbird.

Casino operator Ed Torres purchased the 21-acre parcel and renamed it the El Rancho in 1982.

Las Vegas Entertainment Network Inc., based in Los Angeles, bought the closed El Rancho in 1993 for $36.5 million, then resold it to International Thoroughbred Breeders Inc., of Cherry Hill, N.J., in 1996 for $43.5 million and a percentage of future cash flow.

LVEN originally planned to redevelop the El Rancho as El Rancho's Countryland USA. The plan called for two 20-story cowboy boot-shaped hotel towers.

When International Thoroughbred Breeders came into the picture in 1996, the redevelopment plans became much more elaborate. The plan called for the El Rancho to be redeveloped as the Starship Orion, a complex that would have included seven separately owned 30,000-square-foot casinos, 300,000 square feet of retail space, 2,400 hotel rooms and science fiction-themed attractions.

The Starship Orion concept was scrapped amid analyst concerns that the companies could not raise the $1 billion the project would cost.

Despite its prime location, Thompson blames the El Rancho's failure on its early links to organized crime and poor management.

"It's sort of a nothing place," he said. "Still it's a mystery to me why they couldn't get overflow from Circus Circus (across the street) which is always full."

Unlike other implosions of old casinos that were major events that included fireworks and parties, owners wanted the El Rancho to be a subdued affair.

The last implosion witnessed in the city was when the original Aladdin was brought down in 1998.

The first was the Dunes Hotel in October 1993, followed by the Landmark in November 1995. The Sands Hotel was imploded a year later and the Hacienda was demolished in a New Year's Eve spectacle in 1996.

"The Aladdin, the Landmark, the Hacienda and now the El Rancho - they were all losers," Thompson said.