Riviera
Riviera opened in 1955 and closed in 2015, after 60 years, on the Las Vegas Strip, with up to 2,075 rooms. On the site today: Convention center space on the eastern part; the Strip frontage is for sale.
The story
The Riviera opened on 20 April 1955 with a nine-floor hotel of 291 rooms, the first skyscraper in the Las Vegas Valley. Meshulam Riklis owned it from 1973 for two decades. After a 1983 bankruptcy it courted middle-income visitors, and in 1984 became the first Strip property with a fast-food restaurant, a Burger King. Long-running acts included Frank Marino (1985 to 2009) and Crazy Girls (1987 to 2015). The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority bought it in February 2015 to expand the convention centre. It closed on 4 May 2015, and its towers were imploded on 14 June and 16 August 2016. New convention space now covers the eastern part of the site.
- Opened1955
- Closed2015
- RoomsUp to 2,075
- There nowConvention center space on the eastern part; the Strip frontage is for sale
Nearby, also gone
- Westward Ho 1963–2005 · up to 777 roomsNow: Mostly empty land and a McDonald's, between Resorts World and Circus Circus
- Stardust 1958–2006 · up to 1,552 roomsNow: Resorts World Las Vegas
- El Rancho 1948–1992 · up to 1,007 roomsNow: Fontainebleau Las Vegas (site of the Thunderbird, later the El Rancho)
Old Vegas: where to still see it
Facts from Riviera on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).