Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2005 | 9:44 a.m.
Whistles, cheers and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman in a flowing red gown and giant red headdress -- looking like something out of "Alice in Wonderland," or the drag show he was guest starring in -- kicked off the official grand opening of the downtown club Celebrity on Tuesday night.
City leaders touted the event as another step toward what they hope will become a thriving nightlife scene around the Fremont Street Experience.
A few doors down, country music blared and mid-drift bearing bartenders poured for a growing crowd of locals bellied up to the bar in Hogs & Heifers Saloon, where a few dozen bras hang behind the bar.
And in between those two new businesses, jazz sounds from a lone piano spilled out of a side-room lounge into the immaculate bar and restaurant space in the Triple George Grill, which in its first month open has become one of Goodman's favorite places to hold meetings outside City Hall.
Together, the three eclectic neighbors make up much of what has been dubbed The Block, a stretch of Third Street between Ogden and Stewart avenues that is also home to the Lady Luck, which is landlord to the club, restaurant and bar.
"The Block is hot," Councilman Lawrence Weekly said just before Goodman made his flamboyant entrance as a guest member of The Sin City Divas.
"Where else do you mix business professionals, cowboys and female impersonators? It's another version of mixed use," Weekly said. "There's a little something for everyone here."
The three venues on Third Street staged quiet openings about a month ago. Hogs & Heifers will hold its grand opening celebration Sept. 15 in conjunction with the annual Las Vegas BikeFest biker rally.
Goodman predicted the new bars and clubs, which are among about a dozen opening or planned to open in the few blocks around the Fremont Street Experience, will turn downtown Las Vegas into the place to be.
"Within three or four months when cabdrivers pick up people at the airport and they ask where should we go, everyone is going to say The Block," Goodman said. "It's the most eclectic group of entertainment venues."
The Block is the work of the owners of the Lady Luck, which purchased the buildings across Third Street about a year ago.
Since then the street, legally a private road, has been redone to accommodate the hotel's valet parking, which was moved from about a block away.
The buildings that now house the three new businesses -- and another bar that is under construction -- were renovated. The owners of the Lady Luck have spent between $7 million and $9 million on the transformation of the block, hotel co-owner Bob O'Neil said.
The city has also invested $80,000 -- in the form of two $40,000 visual improvement grants -- in the renovated buildings.
O'Neil said the idea behind the renovations is to bring a safe and urban feel to the area, which he and his partners hope will draw more locals downtown.
"Owning both sides of the street, we saw an opportunity to bring more locals back downtown," O'Neil said. "There are enough improvements now people can see where we're headed and people are walking down Third Street again."
Enoch Agustus, an entertainer on the Strip, and Scott Wynns, a carpenter, are two of the patrons who now frequent downtown thanks to the new club and bar.
Agustus, 32, and considered somewhat of a regular at Celebrity, said the Strip has become too expensive and difficult to get to, especially compared with downtown.
"Downtown is where it's at," he said. "There's fried Twinkies and drag queens, what more do you need?"
Meanwhile, Wynns, 34, has made Hogs & Heifers his regular watering hole.
"I like the bar and the people here are friendly," Wynns said. "It's fun and I have a good time."
Michelle Dell, owner of Hogs & Heifers, said the new businesses seem to be feeding off each others' and downtowns' energy.
"I love downtown. It's funky and edgy," she said, adding that having a relatively small downtown bar allows her to let the community take ownership of the bar.
"It allows the community to make it theirs," she said.
Celebrity owner Don Troxel is equally enthusiastic about downtown, and Third Street.
Troxel ended up leasing on the corner of Ogden and Third after his lease to move into nearby Neonopolis was rescinded. Troxel's suit claiming Neonopolis officials discriminated against his business because it would cater to gays was settled out of court earlier this year.
"It was a Godsend," Troxel said about being forced to find a new location. "This is a much better location."
Troxel said his and the other nearby new nightlife represent "the ground floor" of the coming boom of clubs and bars to downtown.
"The next two or three years will be great for all of downtown," he said.
About three blocks away sits the city's entertainment district, which is centered around Fremont Street from Las Vegas Boulevard to Eighth Street, and is poised to be home to a slew of new bars and clubs.
Scott Adams, the city's business development director, said the openings on Third Street mark a significant addition to the broader downtown entertainment scene.
"The idea is just to bring people downtown," Adams said. "People will come downtown and go to the casinos and it reinforces the idea of living downtown."
City Manager Doug Selby said the new businesses, helped by the city's renewed focus on downtown within the last few years, will hopefully bring more visitors downtown and make it a more appealing place to live.
"We hope it will become more trendy and upscale," Selby said."
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