CIM Group Debuts Gallery Tower in Las Vegas

Gallery Tower, Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino. Image courtesy of CIM Group

CIM Group has just enhanced lodging offerings at Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas with the completion of the 495-key Gallery Tower. The arts-centric Gallery Tower marks the first ground-up hotel to be erected in downtown Las Vegas in more than a decade.

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“With the opening of Gallery Tower, Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino continues to contribute to the vibrancy of Downtown Las Vegas by providing locals and visitors with a premier resort experience in this historic area,” Gary Schweikert, Managing Director-Hospitality, CIM Group, told Commercial Property Executive.

The addition of Gallery Tower, named for Downtown Grand’s hotel collection, comes 13 years after CIM acquired the former Lady Luck Hotel & Casino for $20.4 million, with plans of redeveloping and repositioning the asset. Six years later in 2013, the company reintroduced the property as Downtown Grand following a $100 million investment. In January 2019, endeavoring to meet the increased customer demand for lodging in Las Vegas, CIM broke ground on the 250,000-square-foot Gallery Tower. The eight-story building offers a direct connection to the ground floor of the property’s casino, dining options and entertainment venues.

Gallery Tower marks the third building at Downtown Grand, which spans two full city blocks, and boosts the property’s lodging accommodations to a total of 1,124 guestrooms. The new addition is scheduled to open to visitors on September 22.

Timing

CIM Group announced it had reached the topping out stage on Gallery Tower on February 19, 2020, almost precisely one month before the governor of Nevada mandated the closing of all casinos in the state due to the COVID-19 health crisis. Casinos reopened in June but with restrictions, including a 50 percent capacity limitation in hotels and on gaming floors. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, total occupancy in Downtown Las Vegas reached 41.8 percent in July, down from 85.1 percent in July 2019.

Despite the unavoidable downturn, the future bodes well for the Las Vegas hotel market. “The fundamentals that have made Las Vegas an iconic destination before the pandemic, including the variety of entertainment offerings, large amount of state-of-the-art meeting and convention space, and new resorts, will be a catalyst for the market’s eventual recovery,” Shannon Okada, managing director of gaming with HVS, noted in a new report by the global hospitality consulting firm.