Boardwalk Hotel Las Vegas
Gone, but not forgotten.
The Boardwalk Hotel and Casino ceased operation on January 9th 2006. It is being demolished (not imploded) over a five month period to make way for CityCenter, a five billion dollar hotel and condominium complex expected to open by the end of 2009. The new development is being funded by MGM Mirage, the Boardwalk's parent company.
According to Clark County land records, a 200 room hotel casino was built on the spot in 1968. It later became part of the Holiday Inn chain.
Norbert "Norm" Jansen started the "Boardwalk" version of the hotel with money from his Pioneer Club in downtown Las Vegas in the 1960s. He began with only a gift shop at the site of the former Holiday Inn on the Strip in 1972. Jansen added fifteen slot machines in 1977. He became executive vice president of the Holiday Inn Boardwalk in 1988. His Boardwalk Casino Inc. acquired the Holiday Inn and went public in 1994. The company then spent $80 million on a carnival-themed facade, 451-room hotel tower and 33,000-square-foot casino.
It was subsequently acquired by Steve Wynn in 1998, and finally by the MGM Mirage in 2000. However the casino gift shop remained under the ownership of the Jansen family. Avis Jansen, Norbert's wife, owned the gift shop, and their daughter, Linda Tijerina, worked there until it closed on January 9, 2006.
A public action was held at the Boardwalk on January 21, 2006 to sell off relics and remnants of the hotel and casino.
So, in an effort to document and preserve the history of the Strip, we will maintain this tribute to the "little" hotel and casino that began in 1968.
