Casino boss Derek Stevens acquires land under historic Vegas hotel
Casino boss Derek Stevens now owns another piece of Las Vegas history.
Stevens confirmed in an interview that he acquired the land under downtown’s Golden Gate hotel-casino. His $19 million purchase closed last week, property records show.
Stevens has long owned and operated the historic Fremont Street property. As he explained it, he bought the land from descendants of John F. Miller, who in the early 1900s built the Hotel Nevada where the Golden Gate now stands.
The family sold the land to Stevens through a business entity — originally formed in 1908 — called Sal Sagev Hotel Co. Inc., according to county and state records.
Hotel Nevada’s name was changed in 1931 to Sal Sagev, which is Las Vegas spelled backwards.
Sal Sagev Hotel Co. President James Reynolds — who, according to Stevens, is the great-grandson of Miller — could not be reached for comment.
‘Cost us a lot of money’
Miller, who died in 1957, acquired the plot for his hotel at the 1905 land auction that kick-started Las Vegas’ beginnings, Stevens said. The hotel opened the following year.
Investors from San Francisco eventually opened the Golden Gate casino at the site in the 1950s.
Stevens and his brother acquired a 50 percent stake in the hotel-casino almost 20 years ago and took full ownership of the Golden Gate in 2015.
A visible casino chief, Stevens also owns the D Las Vegas and Circa, a flashy resort he opened in 2020 as downtown’s first newly built resort in four decades.
Stevens said that he got to know Carolyn Reynolds, Miller’s granddaughter, when he first acquired a stake in the Golden Gate. At the time, he said, they agreed to extend the ground lease through 2061.
He said he always wanted to buy the Golden Gate’s land from the original owners, but they weren’t interested in selling.
Stevens figured they wanted to make sure the site was in good hands, adding he’s treated the Golden Gate well and invested in the property.
It “cost us a lot of money” to buy the land, said Stevens, who added that he’d rather own the footprint than lease it from an outside real estate investment trust, as many resorts on the Strip now do.
Vegas history
The Golden Gate, at 1 Fremont St., is a compact property at the western edge of the canopy-covered Fremont Street Experience.
In 2012, its ownership group added a five-story hotel building to the property, saying this marked the Golden Gate’s first major expansion in 50 years. In 2017, Stevens unveiled other upgrades, including a bigger casino floor and a Jazz Age-inspired entryway.
He also promotes the Golden Gate’s place in Las Vegas history.
As outlined on the Golden Gate’s website, Las Vegas’ first telephone was installed in the hotel in 1907; the hotel put up an outdoor electric sign in 1927, a precursor to Las Vegas’ famed neon lights; and the hotel introduced Las Vegas’ original shrimp cocktail in 1959.
Today, vintage black-and-white photos of Rat Pack members and others adorn the walls of the casino. Also, display cases near the hotel check-in desk serve as an in-house museum.
It has 1930s-era hand towels, a room key and phone directory from the Sal Sagev; 1950s-era chip racks and promotional liquor bottles; 1960s-era casino uniforms; and wood piping that held the original line for Las Vegas’ first telephone.
There is also a display that notes the hotel’s original phone number: “1.”
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
