City of Henderson looking to buy Fiesta casino site for $32M

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - The City of Henderson is looking to buy the site of a former casino for millions.

The city council will consider a funding resolution to buy the 35.3 acre site of the Fiesta Henderson at 777 W. Lake Mead Parkway for $32 million.

When Station Casinos announced it planned to sell and demolish the longtime casino near downtown Henderson, the city quickly started thinking about purchasing it, according to Henderson’s director of economic development and tourism Jared Smith.

The city wants to turn the land into an indoor sports recreational facility.

“There is so much pent up demand for sports activities, so what we’re envisioning is a youth sports multisport facility. It could be basketball, volleyball and soccer,” Smith said. “We’re going to go through a planning process that will help us determine that.”

The plan would take $30 million in redevelopment funds and another $2 million from the cities land fund to make the deal with Station Casinos.

“It seemed most likely it would be sold to somebody who would use it for non-gaming purposes,” Gaming historian David Schwartz said. “You wouldn’t want give land over to a potential competitor.”

Fiesta Henderson closed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and never reopened. Station Casinos announced in July that the Fiesta Henderson, Texas Station and Fiesta Rancho would be demolished.

A Station Casinos sale would likely help support new projects popping up around the valley.

“It looks like station is building casinos in areas that are the hot areas where they’re seeing a lot of growth,” Schwartz said. “The idea is just to appeal to more people, and make that casinos as close as possible to as many people as possible.”

The city of Henderson wants to make the site of the former casino a destination too, for both locals and tourists.

“We’d love to see this entire site give amenities that were lost with Fiesta being gone,” Smith said. “We’d love to see restaurants pop up and shopping, which would be great for the people there in the sports facility as well as residents downtown and the east side.”

The resolution will be considered during Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Smith said the deal could close by the end of the year.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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