Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page D8

8D WWW.FREEP.COM SUNDAY, AUG.12,2012 AS VEGAS When you call yourself you had better reflect well on the Motor City. why the Michigan owner of The Las Vegas is spending $20 million to make the hotel worthy and inked a deal to install the first American Coney Island outside Michigan. you are from Detroit, you are from the and I think a very popular name that people are proud said Derek Stevens, 44, majority owner, whose own nickname, coincidentally, is D. Stevens came up with the new moniker after buying the faded Fitzgeralds casino-hotel in downtown Las Vegas last September. He purchased the 638- room property from the estate of the late cable mogul Don Barden.

Barden, also a Detroiter, had owned it since 2002 and even had a penthouse there. By the time Stevens and two partners stepped in, the tired, Irish-themed 1979 hotel sorely needed help a new name. So they got to work. Since April, new carpets, furniture, lighting and paint have upgraded the two-level casino. Deep cleaning of the entire building cleared away decades of grime.

Rooms on floors 16-34 have been totally renovated, with work onthelower floors progressing in a way that allows renovation to continue while the property stays open. Although the red Dlogo has a sultry Vegas image, the property will have definite Detroit touches. Grace Keros, owner of the iconic Detroit landmark American Coney Island, signed an agreement with Stevens this month to open a branch of the restaurant at the hotel. It will be the first one outside Michigan. was the right fit for Keros said.

all moving full steam Nevada is already a top market for the mail-order coney kits, she added. InOctober, many Michigan friends and backers will be flown in for the grand opening. Its offers DLTs, not BLTs. The new Longbar, the longest bar in Nevada, will have its bank of 15 TVs tuned to Detroit sports. from Detroit who comes to Vegas will always know that there is a Wings or Pistons or Tigers or Wolverines or Spartans game Stevens said.

COOL IN THE Stevens lives in Birmingham but commutes to Las Vegasevery week. A Grosse Pointe native and University of Michigan and Wayne State alumnus, he still thinks of himself as a Detroiter. Yet Stevens is not a novice casino owner. He got his Nevada gaming license and bought the Golden Gate Casino on Fremont Street in 2008 then spent $12 million renovating the 1906 property. He knew Barden, the first AfricanAmerican to own a hotel in Vegas, who died in 2011.

Last fall, Stevens, his brother Gregory and business partner Mark Branden- burgbought the Fitzgeralds property from the Barden estate. Terms were undisclosed. Now, The is being marketed in where else? the D. Billboards are up along I-75 and I-94. keep getting calls from friends in Detroit who are seeing all the billboards, and they keep asking, is it a new hotel? They know where it said Darren Banks, an executive casino host for The who moved to Las Vegas in April.

The Windsor native and former hockey player for the Boston Bruins is talking up the hotel in Detroit, trying to get customers to come if he only can get them to understand where it is. He has to keep explaining that The is in downtown Las Vegas, not on the Strip. different. way more relaxed. not he said.

Downtown Las Vegas has long been known for its historic Fremont Street casinos, more homey (some say seedy) atmosphere and its many locals. However, Fremont Street is moving up in the world. Zip lines soar above pedestrians. The Mob Museum just opened a coupleofblocks away, as did a new City Hall. Free concerts, light shows and new nightclubs liven up the atmosphere.

And its 13 casinos are easily walkable unlike the Strip, where you need hiking boots to get from one casino to the next. SIN CITY BUSINESS Although some in Vegas have dubbed The as an old-school, plain vanilla name compared to glamour names like Vdara and Mirage, Stevens knows the place, not the name, will determine whether The rises or falls. all the names that came up the past 25 years, there been a single one that was overwhelmingly Stevens said. first six months before it was opening, nobody could even pronounce Now Bellagio stands for high class, and everybody knows that Now, you have the new Vdara and Aria. These names are alphabet soup.

But with almost every name in the English language, already taken the URL and trademarked alogo for So sticking with his Detroit-friendly brand name. knew if we named it The anybody from the Michigan area down to Toledo would look at it he said. ahead of the game to start with. And then going to let our property do the talking after Adds Banks: flavor is going to be CONTACT ELLEN CREAGER: 313-222-6498 OR FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER, Michigander brings Detroit flavor to Vegas hotel The in the desert By Ellen Creager Free Press Travel Writer PHOTOS BY ELLEN FREE PRESS Zip lines send passengers through the roof of the Fremont Street Experience in front of the new The Las Vegas in downtown Las Vegas. ABCsof The Las Vegashotel With new owners pouring $20 million into renovating The it should be in good shape by its grand opening in October.

a report from when I stayed there in late July: Rooms are both great and terrible. A spacious, renovated room is a treat, with flat-screen TVs, a nice bed, sleek furniture and good view. If you are doomed to stay in an unrenovated room, stepping into the 1970s with smoke embedded in every tired surface and a quilted bedspread. The price is right. During renovations, old rooms are as low as $24 per night, while deluxe renovated rooms are as low as $34 per night (www.thed.com).

a nice vibe at the new Longbar and casino, but I see Detroit sports on the TVs just yet. The two-level casino has sparsely clad dancing dealers and all-new games tables on the lower level. Upstairs find neon, coin slots and a vintage horse-race game called Sigma Derby. Both levels were thoroughly cleaned and have new carpeting, but I still smelled old smoke. Soon an outdoor escalator will propel throngs straight up to the second- level casino.

A walk-up bar will hug the street. The American Coney Island will be near the casino. New signs will stretch across the front of the property. None of these are finished yet. I heard some drilling during the day.

But at night, the only noise I heard was from the concert on Fremont Street below. an 11-story, free parking garage with good valet service. The hotel is several miles from the Strip, but far easier to walk around downtown. Fremont Street is a lot peppier than I recall it beinga few years ago. Creager 1 mile LAS VEGAS 15 515 215 McCarran International Airport DAVID DETROIT FREE PRESS PARADISE WINCHESTER LAS VEGAS The hotel The Longbar in the hotel is the longest bar in Nevada.

Its TVs will be tuned to Detroit sports. PHOTO GALLERY OF THE LAS VEGAS: WWW.FREEP.COM Workers put in new signage at The Las Vegas, which is being remodeled with aMotor City attitude. Travel The Fremont Street area foot traffic and people flying by on zip lines..