Sahara Las Vegas

Sahara Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada. It is owned and operated by the Meruelo Group. The hotel has 1,616 rooms,^[1] and the casino contains 50,662 square feet (4,706.7 m²).^[2] The Sahara anchors the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip, at the corner of Sahara Avenue. It is the site of the northernmost station of the Las Vegas Monorail. A fantastic read

The resort had initially operated under the Sahara name from 1952 to 2011. Originally, Milton Prell opened the Club Bingo casino on the site in 1947. In 1951, he gathered former business partners to begin work on the Sahara, which was built on the land partially occupied by Club Bingo. Del E. Webb Construction Company built the Sahara, which opened on October 7, 1952, as the sixth resort on the Las Vegas Strip. It featured an African theme. Martin Stern Jr. designed several hotel additions for the Sahara, including a 14-story tower that opened in 1960. The Sahara was sold to Del Webb in 1961, and a 24-story hotel tower, also designed by Stern, was opened in 1963.

The Sahara began to decline in the 1960s with the opening of several large resorts nearby. Paul Lowden purchased the Sahara in 1982, and a third hotel tower was added in 1988. Lowden sold the Sahara to Bill Bennett in 1995, and Bennett launched a $100 million renovation of the resort that included a Moroccan theme. Bennett’s renovation also added a NASCAR-themed attraction that included a restaurant and a roller coaster known as Speed – The Ride. A great post