Boyd Gaming to demolish long-closed Eastside Cannery, sell site for housing

Boyd Gaming Corp. will demolish its long-closed Eastside Cannery Casino Hotel in Las Vegas and sell the land for residential development, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

The property, located along Boulder Highway in east Las Vegas, never reopened after Nevada’s casinos were ordered closed for 78 days in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement issued Friday, the Las Vegas-based gaming company cited a lack of market demand as the reason behind the move.

“It has been more than five years since we closed Eastside Cannery, and there is not sufficient market demand to reopen the facility,” the company said. “Given this, we are finalizing plans to demolish the building. We are currently in discussions to sell the site for residential use.”

The 17-year-old property featured a 16-story tower with 307 hotel rooms, a 64,000-square-foot casino, several bars and restaurants, a 16th-floor club, a 250-seat entertainment lounge, and 20,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space.

Boyd acquired the Eastside Cannery and its North Las Vegas sister property, the Cannery, for $230 million in 2016. Since the 2020 shutdown, Boyd continued to maintain the property—spending more than $500,000 per month on utilities, IT, and security systems to keep it operational.

During the pandemic, the Eastside Cannery served as a community resource. Boyd allowed Three Square Food Bank to use the site as a weekly food distribution hub, while the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Clark County Fire Department used the building for training drills, including active-shooter scenarios, cadet seminars, and rescue exercises.

The decision to raze the Eastside Cannery comes as Boyd Gaming expands other parts of its local operations. Earlier this year, the company broke ground on Cadence Crossing, a new development replacing its former Joker’s Wild Casino in Henderson. The project began two months after Boyd announced the $45 million purchase of 29.5 acres from former Eastside Cannery operator Bill Wortman.

Boyd Gaming operates 10 local and downtown casinos across Southern Nevada, including Sam’s Town, located just north of the Eastside Cannery site.

The planned demolition marks the final major Las Vegas Valley casino property closure stemming from the 2020 pandemic. Other operators, such as Red Rock Resorts, have already demolished shuttered properties, including Texas Station, Fiesta Rancho, and Fiesta Henderson.

The Colorado Belle in Laughlin remains the only Nevada casino still closed since the pandemic.