The property originally opened in 1942 as
the Hotel Last Frontier and renamed the New Frontier in
1955. Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes bought the
property for $14 million in 1967 and dropped "New" from
the hotel's title. The Frontier was controlled by the
Summa Corp. before it was purchased by the Elardi
family. Ruffin added the "New" back to the name.
The New Frontier launched the Las Vegas
career of Elvis Presley, who played his first-ever show
at the casino on April 23, 1956. The Frontier was the
site of the final performance of Diana Ross and The
Supremes on Jan. 14, 1970.
Magicians Siegfried and Roy had a
seven-year run at the Frontier starting in 1981 in
"Beyond Belief." The show racked up 3,500 performances
for more than 3 million showgoers before the duo signed
a $57.5 million deal with casino developer Steve Wynn to
perform at The Mirage.
More recently, the New Frontier has
been known as the home of Gilley's Saloon and Dance
Hall, which features bikini bull riding three nights a
week and live mud wrestling twice a week.
Over the years, Ruffin had floated
several ideas for redeveloping the New Frontier, the
most recent being a $2 billion, 2,750-room hotel-casino
called Montreux and themed after the Swiss resort near
Lake Geneva.
The property had been the site of the
nation's longest ongoing work stoppage when more than
550 employees, backed by the Culinary Workers Union,
walked off the job in September 1991.
The workers spent 2,325 days on the
picket line, going back to their jobs at 12:01 a.m.,
Feb. 1, 1998, when Ruffin took possession of the casino.
Ruffin said the deal with El Ad does
not include the seven acres on the backside of the New
Frontier site which hold the $1.2 billion Trump
International Hotel & Tower. Ruffin said the nongaming
towers will continue to be owned in partnership with New
York billionaire Donald Trump.
The initial 1,282-unit Trump
International first tower is expected to be topped off
in a May 25, 2007 ceremony and opened sometime next
year.
"Donald has already heard about the
deal, and he was thrilled to death," Ruffin said. "This
is going to be a really good deal for the towers, and it
will help them out tremendously."
Gaming and real estate analysts have
estimated prime Strip land values at between $20 million
and $30 million an acre. Recently announced transactions
involving the Sahara and land on the north end of the
Strip have been estimated at between $17 million to $23
million an acre.
The New Frontier's acerage increased
in value as activity took place on the surrounding
properties. Wynn Las Vegas opened in 2005 at a cost of
$2.7 billion across the Strip on land that once housed
the Desert Inn. Wynn Resorts is building Encore, a $2.1
billion addition to Wynn Las Vegas that is expected to
open in 2009.
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