DOWNTOWN: Jillian's ends six-year run - Business

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Nov. 22, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

DOWNTOWN: Jillian's ends six-year run

Neonopolis anchor makes way for restaurant amid renewed interest in complex

By BENJAMIN SPILLMAN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

People walk by Jillian's at Neonopolis on Friday. Mall developer Rohit Joshi decided to close the restaurant, bar, arcade and live music venue to make way for a new restaurant.
Photo by John Locher.

Jillian's, a longtime anchor tenant at the Neonopolis mall, has closed to make way for a new restaurant, mall developer Rohit Joshi said Friday.

The restaurant, bar, arcade and live music venue was a prominent feature of Neonopolis since it opened in 2002 and had survived numerous ownership changes and other disruptions that have plagued the mall.

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Joshi said Jillian's stopped operating as a restaurant on Nov. 14 but held a concert Thursday night, an event he said would be the venue's last. Three other concerts that had been slated for Jillian's before the end of the year have been relocated, he said.

Joshi said the decision to close Jillian's was the result of new proposals for the first-floor, street-front space that came in after an announcement the Star Trek: The Experience attraction would open in Neonopolis in early 2009.

The Star Trek attraction drew millions of visitors during an 11-year run at the Las Vegas Hilton that ended in September.

"They heard Star Trek was coming," Joshi said of backers from three entities he says sought Jillian's space. "They will announce it after my Dec. 12 meeting, sometime before the end of the year."

Joshi said the parameters of a deal are in place, but it isn't closed and he wouldn't identify the tenant.

He did say it would take four to six months to remove the furniture and fixtures at Jillian's and to get a new tenant up and running.

"We are retooling everything," he said.

Whether Joshi can deliver on his promises remains to be seen.

The developer has a mixed record when it comes to fulfilling pledges and meeting deadlines.

A perceived lack of progress toward filling Neonopolis has been a regular point of frustration at City Hall, where officials are anxious to reap more returns from a subsidy they provide the mall in the form of an underground parking garage for customers.

Mayor Oscar Goodman has lashed out at Joshi in public several times, including once in June 2007, when the city bent liquor licensing rules to help keep Jillian's open.

The restaurant, which was run by Joshi's wife, Lorraine Kusuhara, was close to losing its liquor license because Neonopolis owner Dharmesh Bhanabhai refused to submit to a background check.

The City Council, with support from Goodman, agreed to grant Jillian's a license anyway.

Even as he voted in favor of the exception, Goodman criticized Joshi for closing down businesses that had been in the mall.

Contacted Friday, Goodman said he takes Joshi "at his word" that a new tenant is close to signing.

That's why he didn't object when he heard about the decision to close Jillian's just 17 months after he and the council went out on a limb to help keep it in business.

"It was a different story," Goodman said of the situation in 2007. "Nothing was happening there."

Today, Joshi has managed to fill much of the second floor of the mall with artist studios, a night club is scheduled to open next month on the first floor and the local affiliate for the Telemundo television network is in the process of moving its operations to the third floor.

"He is making some significant strides," Goodman said of Joshi.

Steve van Gorp, deputy director of business development, says he, too, believes Joshi will deliver a new tenant for Jillian's.

He said Joshi meets as often as twice a month with city officials to discuss progress at the mall.

"Everything is coming together nicely at Neonopolis," van Gorp said. "He is clearly working on a master plan here to try and get good anchor tenants."

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. JPR wrote on November 26, 2008 08:59 AM: Downtown Las Vegas is on the rise, and it will soon be a place where folks from all walks of life and who live in all areas of town will visit (the Smith Performing Arts Center will help see to that, and, yes, so will the Star Trek Experience). As the owner of a successful, high-end service Downtown business that that draws locals from all over the valley, I can assure you that provincialism will not help achieve the goals. Jillian's was one of those places over the years that tried to offer live music to all-age audiences, but, as has already been proven time and time again, basing your bottom line almost exclusively on a crowd that has no money to spend (ie, teenagers) is not the way to be profitable business. Las Vegas is a great city for kids - as long as they are kids of the free thinking, self motivated folks who embrace the Nevada Libertarian philosophy. People who come to Las Vegas hoping for a ready-made environment to entertain and raise their children for them will be sorely disappointed. Not a judgment, just a fact. tyler wrote on November 23, 2008 03:29 PM: whoa so they'r getting rid of jillians so they can have a star trek thing? thats really not cool LasVegasPaco wrote on November 22, 2008 04:57 PM: LOL : )- JLOKC wrote on November 22, 2008 03:08 PM: I thought they were changing the name to Fremont Square. Are they backing up now? RHG wrote on November 22, 2008 11:47 AM: LasVegasPaco wrote on November 22, 2008 09:34 AM: I live 5 blocks south of Neonopolis and love being a Downtowner. To all you critics Go Hang Yourselves! Downtown Rocks with cool artsy cultural types... Not shallow suburbanazis... Oops did I say that... : ) ---------------- Got some bad news for you there Paco, but you supposedly "cool, artsy, cultural types" can be just as obnoxious, pretentious, phony and yes, shallow as the "suburbanazis", and your arrogant ranting proves it. Btw, just calling yourself an "artist" doesn't make you one. casinocon wrote on November 22, 2008 11:40 AM: I'm not into Star Trek so I never went to the Experience though I did gamble in the casino area. I was surprised that Hilton would close it -- what are they going to do with that area now? jk wrote on November 22, 2008 11:06 AM: Fawn, you are correct. However, this is Las Vegas, an adult playground. Kids not counting in this town is nothing new, but it is the way it should be. I highly recommend Phoenix or California if you are looking for a place where the kids are catered to more. Fawn wrote on November 22, 2008 10:15 AM: I was sorry to the concert venue go as it was a great place for my daughter and her friends to go and not have andy concerns about their saftey while in the venue. The security was great at the shows. I hope Las Vegas gets off the stick and opens another ALL AGES VENUE because if you are a kid in this town you just don't count LasVegasPaco wrote on November 22, 2008 09:34 AM: I live 5 blocks south of Neonopolis and love being a Downtowner. To all you critics Go Hang Yourselves! Downtown Rocks with cool artsy cultural types... Not shallow suburbanazis... Oops did I say that... : ) NERDS wrote on November 22, 2008 07:34 AM: Sure, the nerd trekkies will flock to downtown to enjoy the Star Trek experience and a knife in the gut. Read All Comments