After six years of planning and a few false starts, development of a new Moulin Rouge looks to be a go.

Dale Scott, chief executive of the Moulin Rouge Development Corp., along with two partners, attorney Rod Bickerstaff and gaming-industry veteran Chauncey Moore, say a recent agreement with Republic Urban Properties should get the project off the ground.

Plans call for an investment that ranges between $700 million and $1 billion. The property will be built in phases, and eventually contain 700 hotel rooms, convention and meeting space, a concert venue and a jazz center.

Scott is hoping to break ground in 2009—plans were only recently submitted to local officials for approval—and complete the project late in 2010. He is banking on the property being a draw to locals and tourists alike, hoping for a 50-50 split in visitation.

Scott and his partners purchased the Moulin Rouge for $12 million in 2004, after the property was nearly destroyed in a fire that left little more than a shell of a building and a sign.

The idea to resurrect the historic property came to Scott while he was watching a documentary on television.

“I was intrigued by the history of the Moulin Rouge as the first integrated hotel and casino in Las Vegas,” he said. “I knew it had to be rebuilt. It had to come back.”

When the Moulin Rouge opened in 1955, African-Americans were allowed to perform in casinos along the Strip, but they were barred from staying in the hotel rooms. The intense racism in Las Vegas and throughout the state had some people dubbing Nevada the “Mississippi of the West.”

Moulin Rouge offered an escape for many African-American performers, and it soon became the hippest casino in town. It was frequented not only by popular black performers like Sammy Davis Jr. and Louis Armstrong, but by white performers such as Frank Sinatra and George Burns.

Despite its popularity, the property closed only six months after it opened.

By Casino Connection Staff

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