Green Valley Ranch

Green Valley Ranch is a 495-room Mediterranean-themed hotel and casino located on 2300 Paseo Verde Pkwy in Henderson, Nevada. The hotel opened back in 2001 and is owned by the Station Casinos corporation. Green Valley Ranch, deticated to locals, is situated near the Green Valley neighborhood.

The 143,891 sq ft (13,367.9 m2) casino includes a total of eight restaurants, including Station Casino's Feast Buffet, a Pizza Rock, and the Drop Bar.

The resort and casino is located by The District, a mixed-use development center that came along with the opening of the resort.

## History

### **Construction**

On March of 2000, Station Casinos announced that that the company would be building a new locals resort and casino on a 40-acre site just on the south side of Interstate 215 at Green Valley Parkway in Henderson. Along with the resort came with a 170-acre mixed-use retail, office, and commercial project. At a predicated cost of $270-$280 million, the resort and casino would be commencing during the middle of 2000 and would be expected to open in early 2001.

The resort and casino, described as "Santa Barbara-like" and unnamed at the time, was planned to feature over 330,000 square feet of public space and two hundred hotel rooms. Along with that would be a 22,000-square foot state-of-the-art spa with outdoor pools, a 10-screen movie theater, full-service restaurants, a food court with six outlets and a non-gaming arcade. The casino, predicted to be about 54,000 square feet, was to include over 2,000 slot machines and 40 table games, along with a race and sports book and a poker room.

Station Casinos partnered up with American Nevada, which is owned and operated by the Greenspun family, who also owns the adjacent Green Valley neighborhood and contributed $40 million in to the project's land and cash.

### **Opening**

Green Valley Ranch was Station Casino's eighth hotel and casino to open. Costing about $300 million to build, it made it one of the company's most expensive owned properties at the time. Green Valley Ranch opened to the public at 9:30 PM after a fireworks show at 9:00 PM. Before that, a pre-opening VIP party was held inside the casino at 6:00 PM that included 3,000 guests. A round-the-clock limousine and concierge service available to shuttle guests from the Green Valley Ranch to the Strip (or somewhere else) was added with the opening.

Even though the hotel and casino was geared primarily towards locals of the Las Vegas area, both Station Casinos and the Greenspun family, the owners of the Green Valley neighborhood, expected tourists to flock inside it as well.

The resort and casino contained Bull Shrimp, a steak and seafood restaurant owned by Gustav Mauler, the Border Grill, an Original Pancake House, which was considered the first one inside a hotel/resort and casino, Trophy's sports bar and an "around the world"-themed Feast Buffet, along with a food court. There was also Fado's Irish Pub which opened in February of 2002, marking it as the first of it's kind in the southwestern United States.

Green Valley Ranch soon opened its new 400-seat bingo hall on May 13, 2013 at 9 A.M. The hall replaced Ovation, one of the resort and casino's previous concert venue.

On April 30, 2014, Station Casinos announced that Green Valley Ranch was getting a $20 million upgrade that was expected to end by spring of 2015. This included the opening of the Zagat-award winning Mercadito restaurant, the Tipping Hall, Pizza Rock, a new change to the roadside marquee, and 16-seat Keno lounge by the Grand Cafe. A new wedding suite was added, as well as an upgrade to all 300 rooms in the resort's east tower and an upgrade to the 33 VIP suites.

## Thematic Influence

Green Valley Ranch is meant to copy the ambience and architectural style of an average building in the Mediterranean area of Europe. This includes the beachside resort-style layout, the excessive amount of palm trees and shrubs, the casino's dark-lit interior, etc...

## Extra Information

### **Social Media**

* ***Facebook:*** https://www.facebook.com/greenvalleyranch/
* ***Twitter:*** https://twitter.com/gvrcasino