Land values have continually climbed on the Las Vegas Strip, and available sites -- especially those on the packed South and Central Strip -- have become incredibly costly.
Building motels and kitschy shops makes no economic sense when those sites could be developed into high-end retail plazas, casinos, hotels, and entertainment venues.
At 4.2 miles, the Las Vegas Strip is a finite resource, with the central and south sections dominated by Caesars Entertainment (CZR) and MGM Resorts International (MGM).
A number of new players want to challenge that dominance, including the billionaire Tilman Fertitta and the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota (known collectively as MHA Nation). They're buying up Strip land, probably to build casinos.
DON'T MISS: Las Vegas Strip Get More Scary Health News
In addition, MSG Entertainment (MSGE) has its huge Sphere project nearing completion adjacent to the Venetian, and a number of major retail/restaurant projects are being built.
Add in that the Tropicana resort casino remains in contention as the possible site for an Oakland Athletics baseball stadium, and you can see the demand for the very limited available land on the Central and South Las Vegas Strip.
And that's why you might be shocked at how a key available piece of Las Vegas Strip land -- the site of the never-completed SkyVue Las Vegas Ferris wheel -- will be used for the next 13 months.
Image source: MSG Sphere Las Vegas
Las Vegas Strip Site Gets an Old-School Use
For many years, Las Vegas was the magic capital of the world. The Strip was dominated by acts like Siegfried & Roy and David Copperfield, old-school performers who hark back to the city's past.
Now, magic still has a place in Las Vegas, with Penn & Teller headlining at the Rio and Caesars hosting Criss Angel's "Mindfreak" show at Planet Hollywood, but it's certainly a less dominant form of entertainment.
Classic magic has largely gone the way of the showgirl -- which makes it strange that the vacant SkyVue Las Vegas, a well-located property across from MGM's Mandalay Bay, will be used for a pop-up magic show.
The Clark County Board of Commissioners approved a permit for the magician Jay Owenhouse to operate a temperature-controlled tent at the site to house his very old-school magic show, Casino.org reported.
Owenhouse, 59, a relatively well-known escape artist and illusionist, since 2020 has been trying to get permission to launch a tented show on the site.
His original proposals were rejected because they included the use of live tigers. All live animals have been dropped from the act after Owenhouse faced opposition from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Las Vegas Strip Site Has a Sad History
The SkyVue Las Vegas Ferris Wheel site has been abandoned for more than a decade. It had been conceived as an entertainment complex that also would have housed a roller coaster, retail and restaurants.
The project was doomed by its timing, since financing Las Vegas Strip projects was much harder in 2012 when the SkyVue effort was launched. It's unclear why the site has sat vacant for so long. Wayne Perry, a partner in the original project, bought the 20-acre site for $75 million in 2020 during the height of the covid pandemic.
He has not publicly disclosed possible plans for the prime real estate. Owenhouse's old-school magic show means that at least for the next 13 months, nothing in the way of long-term plans for the property will happen.
Owenhouse has not set an opening date for his show nor has ticket pricing been made public.
