Renderings show that the rest of the project would consist of a rebuilt two-story hotel and a parking garage as well as two large towers of hotel rooms.

It's an estimated $700 million investment on a rundown stretch of Bonanza Road near a homeless shelter and the Review-Journal.

The addition of modern elements doesn't take away from the site, which is listed on local and federal registries of historic places, said Courtney Mooney, an urban design coordinator with the city of Las Vegas.

"What is left is really the most significant elements of the property," she said. "The real significance of the building is the events that occurred there."

There's another building there that could be considered significant, noted commission chairman Bob Stoldal, an old strip mall that was once the home of Clark County Legal Services.

That office was where a lot of the organizing took place for the 1971 protest marches on the Strip decrying the state's treatment of welfare recipients, events that focused a national spotlight on Nevada.

"What occurred was something that would never occur today," Stoldal said. "There were marches, and they marched right through the casinos."

He wasn't saying that the building should be or even could be added to a historical registry, but he noted the challenge of balancing history with the demands of a town that's always looking for something new.

"I think Steve Wynn said once, 'Every five years, we've got to reinvent ourselves,' " Stoldal said. "The challenge has always been in a town like Las Vegas, which is energy and 'boomtown,' how do you preserve some elements?"

In the case of the Moulin Rouge property, he said, "you're preserving almost more of a historical moment than a structure."

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or (702) 229-6435.