Sahara celebrates 70 years, making it one of the oldest Strip hotels

Sahara Las Vegas is turning 70, and it brought out balloons and champagne-filled flutes Friday evening to celebrate.

The historic Strip hotel will be celebrating the milestone with promotional deals all month at its bars and restaurants for visitors and locals. It’s also debuting a photo exhibit titled “70 Years of Extraordinary Images: SAHARA’s History in Photographs” that will showcase the property’s history and milestones.

“We have woven threads from our past throughout all parts of the hotel,” Sahara General Manager Paul Hobson said, noting a model of its old sign on the casino floor and desert-colored tones throughout the property.

The hotel, which has hosted the Rat Pack, the Jerry Lewis Telethon and the Beatles, has undergone several ownership changes and renovations over the years.

When it first opened Oct. 7, 1952, it was a 240-room Moroccan-themed hotel, then called Hotel Sahara, and was owned by developer Milton Prell. It was the sixth casino on the Strip.

Now, the property is owned by Alex Meruelo, founder of The Meruelo Group, owners of the Grand Sierra in Reno. Meruelo renamed the property from SLS Las Vegas to Sahara Las Vegas in 2019 after taking control of SLS in April 2018 for an undisclosed price from San Francisco-based investment fund Stockbridge Capital Group.

Since 2019, Sahara has seen $150 million in renovations including its most recent project that updated the property’s drive-up entrance with a large fountain and LED lights that put on a light show, Hobson said.

Michael Green, associate professor at UNLV, said the renovations show Sahara wants to use its brand to connect the past while keeping up with the competition on the Strip.

“They want you to know about that great history … but they’re also modern. They’re almost boutique,” Green said. “The Sahara expanded a great deal in the ’50s and ’60s. But today, it’s small compared with other properties down the Strip.”

He also pointed out that Sahara still operates in some of its original buildings and is the oldest standing structure on the Strip. While the Flamingo is the oldest property, it doesn’t have its original buildings.

Sahara has three towers with 1,600 rooms and nearly 60,000 square feet of casino space.

Hobson said that when Meruelo Group took over ownership of the hotel, it wanted the property to stay “recognizable for what it is” and modernize it. He thinks it’s notable that the hotel never went through an implosion.

What mob connection?

Walking through the hotel lobby and casino, visitors can see pictures of its iconic past including images of the Beatles sitting at slot machines, Elvis Presley and Clint Eastwood.

The hotel was also notable in the 1950s because it was one of the few properties on the Strip that didn’t have direct associations with organized crime, according to Green.

Being able to attract high-profile celebrities and performers like Johnny Carson and Sonny and Cher helped differentiate Sahara from other hotels on the Strip, Green said. And the Sahara helped inspire other Las Vegas hotels to focus on performances to attract customers. Green pointed out that in 1964 the Beatles were to perform at the Sahara, but ticket demand was so high the show had to move to the convention center, making it one of the first arena shows in Las Vegas.

Green said that after the 1970s, the Sahara began to struggle as more hotels opened on the Strip. It closed it doors in 2011 with owner SBE Entertainment saying it was no longer economically viable to keep the property open. The hotel reopened as SLS Las Vegas in 2014.

“The SBE Entertainment Group finalized the purchase in 2007, and that is not great timing,” Green said. “I think the Sahara had been going downhill for a while in terms of being an attraction, its customer base. … Another thing is that at that point, that end of the Strip was hurting. The Sahara was looking pretty lonely (in 2011).”

But 70 years later, Green is still optimistic about the hotel’s future.

“It’s still here,” he said. “And it looks good for (its) age. It looks good at any age.”

Contact Sean Hemmersmeier at shemmersmeier@reviewjournal.com. Follow @seanhemmers34 on Twitter.