New Non-Gaming Vegas Hotel for Biz Travelers Will Rely on 1960s Design

A third-generation Las Vegas real estate developer is targeting corporate travelers with his latest resort. But unlike other hotels, Lorenzo Doumani is turning back the clock, drawing inspiration from an iconic, casino-free hotel built by his grandfather.

Building on the new 720-room Majestic Las Vegas will begin in July this year, with completion due in 2024. Instead of slot machines, there’ll be a wellness center and medical spa.

A postcard for La Concha Motel, built in 1961. Picture: Flickr

Doumani’s grandfather built the La Concha Motel in 1961, which as well cutting out the gambling featured iconic domes, designed by architect Paul Revere Williams. These elements are also being revived, while Doumani hopes to recreate the financial success of the historic hotel too.

“La Concha Motel had 100 rooms, but made a million dollars a year, in 1960s money, and it was a non-gaming hotel for high-end clientele. So in a weird way, the history of it is very positive,” Doumani told Skift.

He clams the Majestic will be a first for Las Vegas — but that’s only if you don’t include La Concha Motel. “We’ve never had a non-gaming hotel because gaming was always 60, 70, 80 percent of the revenue. Now it’s only 32 percent of the revenue,” he said. “It’s never been done as a standalone, and never been attempted on a significant level.”

It’s a risk to assume business travel is set for such a rebound, even by 2024. Doumani also wants to sell 35 “Sky Suites” to companies, which he imagines could be used as convention and meeting spaces, showrooms or corporate headquarters. After a year like 2020, most companies would wince at the $10-100 million price range.

But Doumani is confident the Majestic’s location, opposite the new Las Vegas Convention Center and the Tesla Tunnel, which recently submitted plans to expand to downtown Las Vegas and potentially McCarran International Airport, will draw corporations in.

From left: Architect Paul Steelman, Lorenzo Doumani, and celebrity chef and restaurateur Todd English at a launch event on January 6, 2020.

That, and the promise of social distancing and a move to healthier lifestyles; the resort will even offer guests nutrition counseling.

“I think we’ll learn from coronavirus, and our project is a smaller project. It’s not one of these 4,000-room mega-resort and casinos Las Vegas is known for,” he said. “Corporate clientele don’t want to trek through a place with 10,000 people, and carpet and smoke.”