Moulin Rouge rehab plans

from today's Las Vegas Sun (2/25):

ONCE AGAIN, A PLAN FOR RENEWING THE MOULIN ROUGE
Proposal to revive civil rights landmark to be presented today
By Timothy Pratt
Mon, Feb 25, 2008 (2 a.m.)

"A dozen or so apartments remain on the Moulin Rouge site. Much of the property was destroyed by a fire in 2003.

For at least the third time in the past four years, the Moulin Rouge has announced it will rise again, this time propped up by a Virginia-based company’s investment.

The Bonanza Road hotel’s owners will present their casino and hotel construction plans to the community this afternoon in a public meeting at their offices east of the hotel.

The stakes are high because the Moulin Rouge is one of only about 20 local listings on the National Register of Historic Places — and the only one connected to civil rights." ...

"Starting in 2004, owners of the property began announcing that the Moulin Rouge would return to glory, and add a museum. At least two attempts failed. This month Republic Urban Properties, based just outside Washington, D.C., said it will invest up to $1 billion in a 700-room hotel, with restaurants, a concert hall, stores and gambling.

The announcement was carried in reports around the country, but those familiar with the site are skeptical about the plan. The property is in a run-down neighborhood, near one of the valley’s largest homeless shelters.

There’s also the track record of Chauncey Moore, chief operating officer of Moulin Rouge Development Corp., the local company that owns the property. Moore is currently a defendant in lawsuits filed in three states." ...

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