Boarded-up bar on Las Vegas Strip ditches damaged sign

The Laughing Jackalope has seen better days.

The boarded-up tavern at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip closed well over a decade ago, and the property has since been a magnet for vandalism and vagrants.

It’s a blighted piece of real estate, and a stark contrast to the towering, gold-gleaming Mandalay Bay across the street.

This week, the Laughing Jackalope lost a little bit of itself, but the small building on Las Vegas Boulevard is still standing.

Work crews on Thursday were taking down the shuttered bar’s damaged, stand-alone sign in the parking lot.

The sign showed a buck-toothed, sunglasses-wearing, grinning jackalope dressed in a white blazer, black pants and black-and-white shoes with fistfuls of money, standing next to a 25-cent video-poker machine gushing coins.

Well, at least on the north-facing side, and even that had some missing pieces.

The south-facing side had only an outline of the poker machine and the jackalope, albeit with its shoes and part of an arm still intact.

The power boxes at the base of the light-bulb-ringed sign had been pried open as well.

‘Tough scenario’

Ric Truesdell, the property’s longtime listing broker, said Thursday that the sign was structurally a problem and that he got the owners to tear it down.

He didn’t know what was going to happen to it, including whether it would be sent to The Neon Museum, which operates the popular Neon Boneyard outdoor exhibit space of signs from old Las Vegas casinos, motels and the like.

A representative for the venue did not respond to requests for comment.

Truesdell, owner of Cornerstone Co., said the landlords aren’t interested in a long-term lease for the Laughing Jackalope property — a listing brochure offers a one- to three-year term — and aren’t putting money to it.

“It’s a tough scenario,” he said.

But he said there is a lot of interest in the property, and with the Athletics building a new baseball stadium just half-a-mile or so up the street, he believes someone will eventually redevelop the Laughing Jackalope site.

The tavern building itself can be occupied and operated, he said, but it needs some work. The air-conditioning units were destroyed by vandals, Truesdell noted.

Blighted property

Graffiti and vagrants have been common sights at the property over the years. There have been a few break-ins, though most of the damage to the property has been outside, Truesdell said.

The graffiti is frequently painted over, and Truesdell said that he works with neighboring property owners to keep the homeless away and that people haven’t been sleeping outside the building too much lately.

The Laughing Jackalope had a motel that was demolished around 2009, and the bar and restaurant went out of business in 2009 as well, according to Clark County building and business-license records.

Truesdell’s long-term listing of the site has worked well for him, he said, noting he has landed clients that he ultimately placed in other buildings around the valley.

But, like the Laughing Jackalope itself, his brokerage firm’s sign at the property that announces its availability has been repeatedly damaged.

Truesdell said he needs to replace his own sign multiple times a year because of vandalism.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.