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Gift shop manager Marie Sullivan, front right, cheers as she along with hotel manager Roger Shoaff, right, and his wife, Roseanne Shoaff, who also manages the hotel, removes the sign Monday in front of the Boulder Dam Hotel that indicated it was closed. A $260,000 donation from an anonymous donor is enough to reopen the historic hotel, museum and restaurant at 1305 Arizona St.
Monday, July 20, 2009 | 3:40 p.m.
Boulder Dam Hotel
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Nine days after the Boulder Dam Hotel closed for lack of funds, an anonymous donation of $260,000 has made it possible for the historic structure, its museum and restaurant to reopen.
“I’m so thrilled with this,” said attorney Ralph Denton, who brokered the donation to the hotel. He presented a check to Darryl Martin, president of the Boulder City Museum and Historical Association at 2 p.m. Monday in front of the hotel. The historical association operates the hotel and restaurant to support the museum, which is on the hotel’s mezzanine level.
The hotel closed July 11 after several rescue plans fell through, the last one an appeal to the city for redevelopment funds. The operation fell behind three months on its mortgages of $940,000 and owed vendors and utility bills. It was able to pay employees a final paycheck on its closing day.
Hotel and museum officials blamed the recession for a $60,000 decline in revenue since December, which they said was the difference between success and failure for the nonprofit venture.
Martin said managers would be calling vendors and former employees quickly so that the restaurant can open for breakfast on Wednesday.
The museum will reopen Tuesday, said museum gift shop manager Marie Sullivan, who kept the gift shop open four of five days last week on a volunteer basis.
The hotel, which Martin called a “working exhibit” as opposed to a business, should be open again for guests this weekend, manager Roger Shoaff said.
Denton distributed a short statement from the donor that said, “People should be less concerned about who the donor is and more concerned with keeping the Boulder Dam Hotel and Museum viable and making a long-term success both with their actions and words.”
The donor is requiring a monthly audit and marketing plan, Denton said. The audits should help the museum manage the property, he said.
Denton said his next goal for the hotel, where he leases space for his law office, is to raise money for an endowment to ensure the long-term health of the association.
“Hopefully others will step forward,” said Sara Denton, Ralph Denton’s wife and a founding member of the Boulder City Museum and Historical Association.
Denton and other lessees of the hotel, including the Boulder City Art Guild, Classic Hollywood Gems and other shops, had been given 30 days to move, but that will no longer be necessary.
Wendy Hatfield, Denton’s assistant, was glad to hear that. She had a vacation scheduled the week of the move that she had canceled. Now she will be able to go.
“It’s definitely a good thing,” she said.
After photos of the check-passing and taking down a sign that told visitors of the hotel’s closure, Denton and Martin headed into the hotel’s lobby.
The next order of business: martinis and champagne.
Yes a marketing plan as well a place locals can stop in and have the "martinis and champagne" so boastfully slated as the next order of business.
1. Put a real restaurant back in the hotel....the tea lady is just a very inadequate strategy. If you do, I'm sure the Big Horn will be upset because they are the reason the hotel shut down Matteo's in the first place... the exalted BC influence peddlers just hate having competition from "outsiders". Milo must have greased some big pockets to get what he did..at the Wine Bar..
2. Advertise rates in the paper, have special rates for wedding parties or slower nights/weekends for locals. Embrace the Lake tourists.. Have parties on the patio again.
3. Bring a weekend nightclub/bar back in the basement.
Surely these simple strategies could bring monies back into the hotel.
Matteo's alone would've added $15k-$20k since December if they hadn't been run out of town.
A "working exhibit"??????? Wow, that changes everything.... let us see, a hotel business should make money, but a working exhibit, heck everyone know that will "take" money.. Hooray, a semantical silver bullet!! Everything will be wonderful......I can hear the flushing sounds 3 blocks away...
Dear Mystery Donor, please look at the business plan/direction of hotel's management. I do think they could use some credible business advice and help as they appear to lack some fundamental business skills.
And please, the tea lady!!! Really?
Offer special packages from Las Vegas to include lodging, all meals, and if possible free drinks. Let the hawkers on Las Vegas Blvd. sell these pacakages.
Are we all that cynical as the two responses before? Some outstanding person gave a gift of history. Once these gems are gone, they are GONE! Yes we all need to tighten our belts but let us celebrate the reopening of the Boulder Dam Hotel. If you want it to succeed, stay there. Don't just complain, Stay there! Go to the restaurant. Show your support!!!! I know I am.
Very generous donor, thank you. Hopefully, business as usual at the hotel will not exist any longer.
Great news, congratulations are certainly in order. Fortunately it was not tax payers money, Thank goodness for two council members that saved the citizens at least 200,000 dollars. Museums are great for any city, but during these bleak economic times, it would of been inappropriate for the city to fund this enterprise when many people can barely feed themselves and make their monthly obligations. .
Many thanks to the mystery donor. The world needs many more like you.
Good for them! In times when our country is in a complete mess it is so refreshing to see someone out there actually doing something extremely nice and thoughtful.
should of donated to me to pay off my student loans ....what a wast of money....you could of feed or cloth thosands for that cash... in tsead some hotle no one cares about stays open....lol/.....i know selfish