First Look at What’s Replacing Hawaiian Marketplace on Las Vegas Strip

Posted on: May 11, 2023, 03:18h. 

Last updated on: May 11, 2023, 09:25h.

Corey Levitan Read More

Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

Pedestrians on the Las Vegas Strip were the first to catch a first look at what will replace the Hawaiian Marketplace. The downscale collection of tattoo and CBD shops, bars, and cheap eats that was looking increasingly out of place amid its swankier neighbors before it was purchased and shuttered last summer.

A poster adorning the 9.5-acre construction site across the Strip from CityCenter shows an artist’s rendering of the 95-foot-tall structure with 302,613 square feet of combined indoor and outdoor commercial floor area described in plans submitted last July to the Clark County Commission by Gindi Capital.

The New York investment firm purchased the Hawaiian Marketplace, along with an adjoining strip mall, Cable Center Shops, last June for $172 million.

The rendering, tweeted Thursday morning by Casino.org’s own Vital Vegas blogger Scott Roeben, is taglined: “Shop. Dine. Play.” It shows nondescript shopping and restaurant brands housed in a complex called BLVD, apparently in homage to the former Hawaiian Marketplace’s Boulevard Food Court.

When Aloha Means Goodbye

The Hawaiian Marketplace and Cable Center Shops were primarily known as a hub for cheap fast food, an increasingly rare commodity on the Strip’s southern end, as well as cigar and CBD stores, tattoo parlors, and bars. Most of these businesses closed last July when their leases were terminated.

The sketchy malls have been the butt of jokes for some time,” Roeben said last year. “But it appears the owners of this stretch of increasingly valuable real estate are finally making moves to try and turn blight into delight.”

While a casino wasn’t included in the initial plans, Gindi said last year that a hotel could be proposed later. The new rendering does not show one.

Nextdoor Neighbors

Next door to the Hawaiian Marketplace, a 60-year-old Travelodge was purchased for $270 million in June 2022 by Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Golden Nugget downtown. The billionaire, who also owns the NBA’s Houston Rockets, plans to build a casino resort on its 6.2 acres.

These two luxury projects sit directly across the Strip from Aria, Vdara, The Cosmopolitan, and the Waldorf Astoria, four properties typically included when discussing Las Vegas’ finest resorts.