Golf, youth sports, special events drive tourism in Mesquite
It would be easy to write off Mesquite as a dying casino town based on what motorists can see off Interstate 15 as they travel north toward Utah.
Sure, there’s a nice stretch of green near where the Casablanca hotel-casino lies on the southern edge of town – right next to a patch of empty land where the Oasis once stood with an abandoned pedestrian bridge over Mesquite Boulevard from the dormant parking garage that once served a 900-room casino-hotel.
From the highway, there are a few signs of commerce visible. Some store fronts, a couple of nice baseball fields and another pair of big casinos, the Virgin River and the Eureka on the north end. Another golf course, the Palms, then the daunting Virgin River Canyon, an engineering marvel in northwest Arizona that was one of the most expensive and challenging interstate highways ever built because of its cut into solid rock.
What can’t be seen from the highway are the growing neighborhoods filled with retirees and second residences for snowbirds who make Mesquite home in the winter months. Also hidden are nine other award-winning golf courses that many players contend are the best tracks in the Southwest. Fairways are grooved within red rock canyons with tee boxes towering above the desert landscape. Courses with names like Wolf Creek, Conestoga and Falcon Ridge have dozens of signature holes golfers rave about.
Three major casinos
Also unseen are big plans on the horizon in the three major casinos that represent Mesquite’s gaming industry — Casablanca, Virgin River and Eureka.
The privately held Eureka, operated by the Lee family and owned by its employees, is undergoing a $100 million expansion and renovation project that was announced in April.
Executive Chairman Greg Lee said the first $40 million has gone toward refreshing the 212 hotel rooms and the 40,285-square-foot casino.
The second phase of Eureka’s expansion — dubbed internally as Eureka 3.0 — involves new development on roughly 35 acres behind the casino. The company wants to build retail, resort condominiums and apartments, including workforce housing, on a mesa overlooking the resort.
“We had to put on our multigenerational family business hat, which has another wonderful component to it, a 100 percent employee owned, family business,” said Andre Carrier, chief operating officer of the Eureka. “You have to look at the kind of investments that are substantive in a business, that get returns over the long term.”
The Eureka’s next-door neighbor, the Virgin River, and the Casablanca, are owned by Mesquite Gaming. The company has positioned Virgin River as the large locals draw and a budget option for visitors who come to the city for special events, golf tournaments and youth sports competitions. The Casablanca is established as a more luxurious getaway destination for leisure travelers from Utah and Las Vegas. Its spa and golf packages are well advertised in Las Vegas and local Mesquite residents see the dining as a treat for special occasions.
New showroom
The Casablanca is adding something more — a new showroom that opened this month and is expected to bring new energy to the property.
“We’re so excited about the showroom and that brand new bar that’s right outside of the showroom,” said Mesquite Gaming CEO Justin Moore. “We’re going to be moving all of our normal entertainment that we had at the center lounge area of the Casablanca into the showroom. And so what that means is a larger space, larger dance floor, bigger stage and brighter lights.”
Moore said there’s no particular musical genre being targeted — just a plan to be versatile and to see what works best. Expect local groups that have fared well in Las Vegas to make appearances.
Moore expects the showroom to be a big draw for his most important market — Mesquite locals.
“That is a growing community which actually almost doubles in size during the wintertime with the influx of snowbirds,” Moore said. “That’s our number one priority. The city of Mesquite’s average age is 65 years of age so that kind of gives you a good idea of what type of age demo we’re looking at. Now because of our location in Mesquite, we offer a very unique, diverse business model.”
That’s why spas, golf, fine dining and a diverse musical offering is right in Mesquite’s wheelhouse.
The other important market is linear, along the I-15 corridor, from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City. Utah has the nation’s youngest demographic profile so Mesquite positions itself as a destination for youth sports competitions.
Rising Star
The Lee family that owns the Eureka also runs the Rising Star Sports Ranch, which bills itself as family friendly with no smoking and no casino. Its amenities include an indoor field house for batting cages, horseshoe pits, putting green, volleyball, basketball and pickleball courts, cornhole and an outdoor “Backyard” with picnic tables and fire pits.
Because the desert climate is mild, even in the winter, Mesquite becomes home to a variety of tournaments year around, including November’s Nevada Open Golf Tournament. Mesquite courses also are home to U.S. Open qualifying tournaments and in the past have hosted long-drive competitions for power golfers.
Mesquite Councilman Brian Wursten, the city council’s representative on the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors and the director of golf for Mesquite Gaming, knows that the city’s courses are big drivers of the local tourism economy. He adds that the collection of sports tournaments coupled with a smattering of special events sponsored with LVCVA dollars keeps Mesquite busy most of the time, but also sets up a feast-or-famine scenario that Mesquite leaders occasionally wrestle with.
Wursten, who has now been in Mesquite for 32 years after living in Richfield, Utah, came to town to open the Oasis Golf Club and during his tenure, also opened Falcon Ridge Golf Course in 2004.
“When I moved here, there were 2,200 people,” Wursten said. “Now, there are over 25,000.”
Wursten thinks the LVCVA does a credible job marketing the community, but would like to see more events put on the calendar to increase and spread out visitation volume.
He also said Mesquite could establish itself as a gateway to Utah’s national parks and could even be an overflow destination for Las Vegas mega events like the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix and future Super Bowls. Last year, he said, Mesquite filled up during those events because of the relatively easy 90-minute commute to Las Vegas and the city’s serviceable airport that can handle private jets.
Popular special events in Mesquite include a hot-air balloon festival in January and two classic car shows a year. The community also has tried to get itself on a rib fest rotation.
Oasis land
The dilemma for the community is that when there’s a popular event or sports competition going on, hotels are packed and it’s easy for Mesquite Gaming to contemplate developing the dormant Oasis land.
Moore said Mesquite Gaming acquired the Oasis, formerly owned by Randy Black Sr., who had closed most of the property during the Great Recession. The building eventually was demolished and remains a real estate asset for Mesquite Gaming.
“The Oasis closed during the tenure of the previous ownership,” Moore said. “Given the age of the property, it was a large burden financially for Mesquite Gaming to continue to keep it up and running. And so they made the decision to demolish it. Obviously, it’s a phenomenal piece of real estate we inherited in this project. Eventually, we will have plans for that space and we think that space could certainly complement all the phenomenal things that are happening in Mesquite Gaming.”
But for now, the land lies vacant, a symbol of what Mesquite once had and the promise of what could someday happen again.
“We’re looking at all opportunities and ideas for that space,” Moore said. “The number one thing, whatever we decide to do, it needs to be able to complement everything that we already have.
“That land represents an amazing opportunity to enhance everything in the city that is so exciting right now,” he said. “So we’re constantly looking and exploring our options with all of our assets. It just depends on when the right opportunity or the right solution comes across our path. And when that does, I think it’ll be a great day for the city.”
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
