Vegas Strip’s worst eye-sore gets quietly targeted for demolition in stealth $66M deal

One of Sin City‘s most notorious tourist traps is on the chopping block — and casino bosses paid tens of millions just get their hands on it.

Caesars Entertainment quietly shelled out $66 million to buy out retail operator JGB Vegas Retail’s 92% stake in the Grand Bazaar Shops, securing 100% control of the sprawling outdoor shopping maze in front of the Horseshoe Las Vegas.

While the multimillion-dollar transaction seems to go largely unnoticed, local insiders say the stealth buyout means one thing: the Grand Bazaar Shops is living on borrowed time.

Opened in 2015 on what was once Bally’s iconic palm-lined moving walkway, the two-acre open-air bazaar was imagined as a Moroccan-style souk packed with stalls and kiosks. Instead, visitors and locals have spent the last decade roasting it as “weird and sterile.”

Its chaotic assortment of signs, storefronts, kiosks, restaurants and nightlife venues sits across one of the busiest stretches of the Strip, near the Bellagio fountains and Caesars Palace.

Caesars leadership has reportedly harbored ambitions to kill off the complex ever since its merger with Eldorado Resorts, according to local Las Vegas blogger, Scott Roeben, of Vital Vegas. The game plan is to let existing tenant leases expire over the next few years, clear the area and raze the bazaar for good, according to Roeben.

The move comes amid significant churn across their tenant roster.

Country star Blake Shelton’s multi-story country-music bar, Ole Red, is reportedly doing well, while the sports bar Bottle Blonde has new management. Meanwhile, at karaoke joint Smelly Cat, “payroll problems are among the rumored red flags.”

Over the years, big-name tenants like Starbucks and Swarovski have packed up and left the Bazaar. Whatever eventually rises there could dramatically reshape the entrance to Horseshoe.

In May, it was announced that hospitality billionaire Tilman Fertitta’s firm would buy Caesars Entertainment in a $17.6 billion deal. The deal will take one of the Las Vegas Strip’s most prized casino operators private, and includes about $11.9 billion in assumed debt. It’s unclear how that would affect plans for the Grand Bazaar.

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