Sahara cashing out with piece-by-piece sale

At Thursday's sale at the historic Sahara, the only things off-limits will be in the NASCAR Cafe.

Otherwise, more than 600,000 artifacts, furniture, photos, gaming equipment and memorabilia from the 59-year-old Rat Pack-era resort, which closed May 16, will be up for grabs starting at 10 a.m.

Liquidation is expected to take two months.

"Even if it's nailed down, we'll sell it," said Don Hayes, who is overseeing the sale for National Content Liquidators. The Springboro, Ohio-based company ran liquidation sales for other hotels and casinos, among them the Sands in Atlantic City.

Hayes said he's expecting a large turnout because the Sahara was a Sin City mainstay where entertainers such as Johnny Carson, Don Rickles, Tina Turner and Dean Martin performed in the Congo Showroom in the 1960s and 1970s.

The company is charging $10 admission during the first four days of the sale to separate serious buyers from the lookie loos.

Among sale items are large photos of celebrity regulars long displayed on the casino's walls, priced at $550 each.

Items from the famous House of Lords restaurant and the Casbah Lounge, gaming tables, playing cards, dice, tournament chips and other memorabilia bearing the Sahara logo are expected to sell quickly.

Also available are items from the Sahara Theater, lobby furnishings, brass and crystal chandeliers, bars with working equipment, bar stools, office furnishings, commercial equipment, and pool and patio furniture.

Items range from $1 for glassware and flatware, to $22,500 for a money counter used in the casino's count room.

Hayes said the Sahara's 1,720 hotel rooms each contained roughly 25 items, including furniture, televisions, beds and bedding, and mirrored closest doors.

"This place has thousands and thousands of items," he said.

Racing memorabilia, games and items from the popular NASCAR Cafe, however, are not part of the liquidation.

Sahara owners SBE Entertainment is saving those fixtures to re-establish the popular restaurant elsewhere in Las Vegas.

Los Angeles-based SBE, which acquired the Sahara in 2007 with partner Stockbridge Real Estate of San Francisco, announced the property's closing in March, saying it was "no longer economically viable" to operate.

As development moved south on the Strip, the Sahara was seemingly left behind. The halting of construction projects on the north end of the Strip, including Echelon and the Fontainebleau, sealed the Sahara's fate.

SBE CEO Sam Nazarian has not said what he plans to do with the 18 acres at the corner of the Strip and Sahara Boulevard.

The liquidation sale will run 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m Sunday.

Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.