Tony Hsieh’s boarded-up former motels are being demolished

Tony Hsieh’s old motels on Fremont Street are being reduced to rubble.

Work crews recently started demolishing boarded-up motel buildings in downtown Las Vegas that were owned by the late Zappos chief, who died more than five years ago and whose former motel sites ended up blighting a stretch of the city.

As seen this week, crews have been tearing down the long-shuttered motel structures on the north side of Fremont between Maryland Parkway and 14th Street. The properties were previously known as Alicia Motel, The Gables and Valley Motel.

The city of Las Vegas issued demolition permits in mid-December for those motel buildings and for two others — on the north side of Fremont between 11th Street and Maryland — that previously comprised the Travelers Motel and were still standing as of Monday, records show.

All of the properties subject to these demolition permits are still owned by Hsieh’s estate, according to property records and business-entity filings.

Overall, the demolitions are a stark conclusion to what had been a stagnant component of Hsieh’s heavy investment in downtown Las Vegas. He had acquired several motels but didn’t do much with most of them, and the shuttered buildings went on to amass a history of fires, squatters and other problems.

The mass teardown on Fremont does not come as a surprise.

Hsieh’s former side venture DTP Companies told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in November that ongoing vandalism and related fires had “impacted the structural integrity of the buildings, making them potentially unsafe.”

After discussing the properties’ condition with the city and exploring available options, DTP decided to “raze the motels to help make the community safer and more attractive to residents, business owners, patrons and future developers,” it said.

‘Nuisance’ properties

Hsieh, the former CEO of online shoe seller Zappos and face of downtown Las Vegas’ economic revival, died on Nov. 27, 2020, at age 46 from injuries suffered in a Connecticut house fire. He was unmarried, and his father has been managing his estate through a probate case in Clark County District Court.

Hsieh left behind a vast real estate portfolio of office buildings, apartment complexes, retail properties and other sites downtown. He assembled the holdings through a $350 million side venture originally called Downtown Project, becoming a one-man redevelopment engine for a long-neglected part of the city.

Hsieh’s portfolio included several old motel properties. And since his death, city records show, the shuttered buildings drew vagrants, were torched in fires and had piles of trash.

Las Vegas officials deemed several of his former motels “nuisance” properties and told management to secure access points, remove garbage and graffiti, not allow homeless people on-site and, in at least one case, remove all “offensive odors,” city records show.

Some of those buildings, including the one with the foul smell, were already torn down. But until now, others were still standing.

‘Hazard to children’

For a story published in November, the Review-Journal examined dozens of code-enforcement case reports, correction notices, and notices and orders that the city issued about Hsieh’s former properties since his death. The documents mostly dealt with shuttered motels around the eastern stretch of Fremont between 11th and 14th streets.

City officials reported in 2021, for instance, that squatters were entering the former Valley Motel at the corner of Fremont and 14th streets from the alley behind it. Then, in 2022, they reported that a fire next door, at the former Gables motel, had spread to the building.

In 2023, city officials also received a complaint about a break-in at the Gables site. According to the report, someone had broken all the windows and damaged the plywood that was nailed over previously broken windows and doors.

And in 2024, the city issued a notice that the fire-damaged former Valley Motel was a “hazard to children in the area” and harbored vagrant activity.

“Do not allow homeless individuals to occupy this parcel,” the notice declared.

Several of Hsieh’s motel properties got new signs as part of a city-run revitalization program called Project Enchilada. Proposed in 2018, the program brought retro-looking signs for the Star View, Las Vegas and Lucky motels, as well as Las Gables Court, to Hsieh’s properties on Fremont.

City spokesman Jace Radke previously said that the new signs would be saved when the motels are demolished.

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