Besides the Sahara Hotel & Casino, the north end of the Las Vegas Strip used to be home to the El Rancho, Wet ‘n Wild and other properties that are now defunct. Many tourists and experts now wonder what will happen to that stretch of the strip and if it can ever rebound.

When looking north on Las Vegas Blvd., you see a mix of hotels like the Riviera, Circus Circus and the Hilton Vacation. There is also a lot of vacant land and the unfinished Fontainebleau.

This section of the Strip was once the place to be. The Rat Pack, Elvis, the Beatles were all performing within blocks of each other.

“That end of the Strip is starting to become less desirable visually,” said David Crouse, a visitor who is staying at Hilton Vacation.

Where the El Rancho Vegas once stood now sits dozens of acres of empty land. MGM Resorts owns 78 acres including Circus Circus which they’d planned to built a CityCenter-like property on. And at one point in 2007, the company valued it close to $20 million an acre. Now, it’s nowhere close to that and all plans have been halted.

“That’s a long time for those companies to sit on that land,” said Jacob Oberman, a gaming analyst for CB Richard Ellis.

South of the Sahara sits the $2.9 billion unfinished Fontainebleau Hotel & Casino property. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn bought it out of bankruptcy and hasn’t said what he plans to do with it. Oberman says the north end of the Strip depends on what happens on the south end.

“Aria and Cosmopolitan need to start making cash flow in the hundreds of millions of dollars range,” said Oberman.

Those hotels that are left on the north end rely on members, nostalgia and room rates around $50 a night to keep heads in beds.

“I’ve been here as a teenager, my mom brought me and my sister here to watch the circus, and it was on the Strip, had a nice rate,” said Sam Harris, who is staying at Circus Circus.

“Riviera, it’s a no-brainer, I ask for a top floor and I have the one right below the penthouse, and I’ve been in the penthouse in the past,” said Patricia Norton, who is staying at the Riviera Hotel.

Oberman says the key drivers for these properties are convention numbers, home values and oil prices. If all of those get better, then these hotels will start to fill up.

Riviera’s parent company filed for bankruptcy last year. Its room rate for tonight is $41 but it jumps to almost $100 for the weekend. Circus Circus has an occupancy rate of 63-percent  and the average daily room rate is $58. Analyst believes if there is another hotel casino property built, it won’t be a mega high-end property. Oberman says it could take another 10 years before properties can be built succeed.

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