By Cristina Rodriguez / Staff Writer
The Stage Door Casino at Flamingo Road and Audrie Street has changed its marquee to read, “We have 23 years left on our lease.” The move was in response to a rumor that Harrah’s was going to tear down the building for redevelopment.
A marquee just a few steps from the center Strip begs for the rumors to stop.
“This casino has NOT been sold as claimed.” Then, “We have 23 years left on our lease.”
The Stage Door Casino will not shut down at the hands of Harrah’s Entertainment, says Ron Markin, the small casino’s owner since 1976.
The gaming giant owns nearly 350 acres behind Harrah’s Las Vegas, Imperial Palace, Flamingo, Barbary Coast, Paris, Aladdin and Bally’s, west toward the Rio and east toward Koval Lane. A major redevelopment project is planned, but company officials have not announced their specific plans for the mammoth site.
Harrah’s planned center Strip project leaves staff members and patrons of Stage Door uncertain – a feeling that Markin is trying to dispel with big block letters.
“If I stay there 23 years I’m happy,” Markin said. “Our business is very good. We have an exceptional business there because of our location.”
Stage Door, at 4000 Audrie St. just east of Barbary Coast, has 46 slot machines, two bars, a liquor store and a general store. The business occupies about 7,000 square feet.
Harrah’s bought the land on which the Stage Door sits in 2005. The deal also included an Italian restaurant, Battista’s Hole in the Wall. But while Harrah’s owns the Battista’s business, Stage Door operates under a long-term lease with no buyout clause.
“I had my attorneys looking at my lease, just to make sure,” Markin said. “They say they are satisfied with the lease.”
Harrah’s spokesman Alberto Lopez said: “No, we do not have our eye on that particular spot of land.” But he would not say if that statement referred to just the present time, or to the future.
One of the leading brokers of Strip land sales predicts that Stage Door does not have much to worry about. David Atwell, president of Resort Properties of America, said a legitimate leasehold ensures the right to operate a business.
“Many times leaseholds can be purchased or bought out,” he said. “But I don’t believe Harrah’s is in any big hurry, so you may see that business operating for quite some time.”
Harrah’s announced on Oct. 2 – the same day it announced its first buyout offer by two private equity firms – that it was “nearing completion of land assemblage in Las Vegas.” It had traded land north of the Stardust to Boyd Gaming Corp., in exchange for Boyd’s Barbary Coast.
The main concern at Stage Door is that rumors are making it difficult to keep employees. One bartender worked there for five years, but quit recently because of fears about the stability of the job, said General Manager Alan Hoffman.
“I’ve lost both staff in my store and staff as bartenders. It’s tough,” he said.
The busiest times at the small slot joint are late afternoons on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. About half of the casino’s business comes from local construction workers; the rest are tourists.
But in the grand scheme of the Strip, its history and its future, the Stage Door is insignificant, according to gambling expert Bill Thompson.
“It’s meant nothing. I’m oblivious to it,” said Thompson, a professor in UNLV’s public administration department. “It means nothing for our economy. It produces revenue for the owner: It’s got a goldmine location. I would say the machines are doing double what the other machines in town do.”
Thompson predicts Harrah’s may let Markin hold onto the casino a few years, then make an offer worth millions.
The Stage Door in 1976 was dilapidated, Markin remembers. Records with the county assessor’s office show the land was first owned by a shopping center in 1970, then transferred to another company in 1973. Restaurateur Battista Locatelli took over the whole parcel in 1978.
Markin, who came to Las Vegas from Vancouver in 1958, ran retail centers until taking over the Stage Door, his first casino, in 1976.
“We’ve been there so long, we know so many people,” Markin said. “They’ve asked me many times, ‘Are you going to sell?’ We have no intention of selling. They say: ‘Good – we’ve been coming here for years. It’s our home we want to stay there.'”