Station elevation: Durango Casino could help define southwest Las Vegas
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The time is right. Southwest Valley residents who have been scooting out to Green Valley Ranch Resort or in the other direction, to Summerlin’s Red Rock Resort, are about to have their very own Station Casinos luxury destination in their own backyard.
The $780 million Durango Casino & Resort is primed to open on November 20 at the corner of the Beltway and Durango Drive, with desert-inspired décor, 200 rooms and suites, loads of original restaurant concepts, an 83,000-square-foot casino and sportsbook, and, of course, free parking.
Southwest rising
For Station, it’s a return to form after the five-year takeover of the Palms, a challenging endeavor into Strip-style hospitality for the neighborhood casino company. It’s also a new beginning after the company closed and demolished three older properties after the pandemic; Durango is expected to be the first of several new projects expanding Station’s already sprawling footprint.
For this up-and-coming corner of Las Vegas, it’s another development adding to an interesting new identity.
“It’s such a cliché, but timing is everything,” says Durango Casino vice president and general manager Dave Horn. “Sometimes the population development has to come to you and that’s kind of what has occurred here. There was development already at Rhodes Ranch and at Decatur and Buffalo, but in recent years it’s really taken off and extended down Blue Diamond and I think we’re capitalizing on the timing of that growth.
“The commerce in this area is getting strong. If you look out from our property you can see building happening in all different ways. It’s exciting.”
Station has owned the land site for years and received approval from the Clark County Commission and unveiled plans to build Durango in October 2021. Ground was broken the following March for the 15-story tower, and details about the resort—specifically its comprehensive food and beverage offerings—have been trickling out throughout 2023.
“Food and beverage is a huge part of what we do and there are a lot of staples people have come to expect from us when we open these venues,” Horn says. “We haven’t gone away from those staples, we’ve just changed the variation and the theme of how they’re presented.”
A good example is upgrading the standard and still popular neighborhood casino food court with Durango’s Eat Your Heart Out food hall, a 25,000-square-foot communal culinary experience that will feature LA transplant Irv’s Burgers and New York City’s Prince Street Pizza as well as another version of Marc Vetri’s Fiorella concept, a re-creation of Palace Station’s Oyster Bar and beloved local eateries Yu Or Mi Sushi, Shang Artisan Noodle, Vesta Coffee and Nielsen’s Frozen Custard.
Horn points out that partnering with local, family-owned restaurants speaks to the longstanding culture at Station, and other venues at the property will see new collaborations and extensions of some of the company’s existing partnerships. Clique Hospitality, which runs restaurants at Green Valley and Palace Station, will manage the Bel-Aire Backyard pool area and the Bel-Aire Lounge near the lobby; Lettuce Entertain You will introduce its California-inspired Summer House concept at Durango; and Fine Company will install the upscale sports lounge and entertainment venue The George adjacent to the sportsbook.
The recent boom in development in the southwest makes the timing of this opening a little more interesting. GVR and Red Rock brought new levels of luxury to their respective neighborhoods and offered entertainment and activities that were previously missing. There may already be a fancy food hall and other amenities in the southwest, but Durango will aim to provide bigger experiences. And it could certainly attract customers from other parts of the Valley, another Station tradition, as well as out-of-towners excited to explore the latest in Vegas.
“We always target that audience we’re speaking to in our local area, but … we have a regional database and a national database, and we’re looking to hopefully see some of that regional travel from the five surrounding states,” Horn adds. “We’re not on the Strip, we’re not 3,000 rooms, but we have guests who enjoy the service touches you don’t see in bigger venues.”
