Boyd Gaming acquires land under Eastside Cannery but keeps reopening plans uncertain

Boyd Gaming Corp. has completed a $45 million purchase of the land beneath Eastside Cannery, its long-closed hotel-casino on Boulder Highway in the eastern Las Vegas Valley. While the acquisition marks a significant financial move for the company, Boyd has not announced any plans to reopen the property, which has remained shuttered since the statewide casino shutdowns in March 2020.

The purchase, which closed earlier this month according to property records, terminates Boyd’s previous ground lease agreement and grants the company full ownership of the 29.5-acre site. The land was previously owned by Bill Wortman, co-founder of Eastside Cannery’s former operator.

Boyd Gaming acquired Eastside Cannery in 2016 as part of a $230 million deal that also included the Cannery hotel-casino in North Las Vegas. Before the pandemic, Eastside Cannery featured a 300-room hotel, a 64,000-square-foot casino, multiple restaurants and bars, a 250-seat entertainment lounge, and 20,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space.

Despite now owning the land, Boyd has not committed to reopening the property. In an April 2024 letter to Clark County officials, Boyd’s chief compliance officer Michelle Rasmusson stated that market conditions do not currently justify reopening.

“Economic conditions and demand will dictate when Eastside Cannery reopens,” Rasmusson wrote. She also noted that Boyd would need to hire a few hundred employees to restart operations but is already facing hiring difficulties across its Southern Nevada properties, with more than 400 unfilled positions in the region.

Boyd was previously paying millions in annual rent for the land and had indicated that if demand existed to justify reopening and covering those costs, the company would have done so. However, the casino’s neighboring Boyd-owned Sam’s Town remains operational, and the company cited “plenty of excess capacity” in that area as a reason for keeping Eastside Cannery closed.

Although it has remained closed for nearly four years, Eastside Cannery has not been entirely inactive. Boyd has been investing more than $500,000 per month in property maintenance, security, and upkeep, according to Rasmusson. This includes routine maintenance, IT system updates, and security patrols, as well as regular water circulation to keep the building’s plumbing system fresh.

The property has also served as a training site for police and fire departments. The Metropolitan Police Department conducted over a dozen training exercises at the facility, including active shooter drills, room-clearing operations, and cadet training seminars.

Crime scene investigators have used hotel rooms for academy testing, while the Clark County Fire Department has utilized the site for stairwell training, room searches, and elevator rescue drills. Additionally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Three Square Food Bank operated a weekly food distribution site on the property, providing support for the local community.