Developer to restore Moulin Rouge

A developer has announced a plan to fully restore the Moulin Rouge to its original glory. Again.

Bart Maybie, owner of the historical monument since 1997, has said he will open a restaurant/night club called Maxine's this November, along with 75 slot machines and a Leroy's Sports Book. Full restoration on the casino is scheduled for completion on May 24, 2003, the 48th anniversary of the original grand opening.

"We're getting it going," Maybie said. "One way or another we're opening."

Maybie will spend $500,000 opening Maxine's and another $2 million to reopen the casino. Eventually, he plans to renovate and reopen the hotel depending on the success at Maxine's and add a wedding chapel. He also intends to renovate the 40-year-old shopping center just east of the Moulin Rouge.

This is not the first announced restoration for the civil rights landmark. There have been four such announcements just since 1997. Prior to that, the Las Vegas Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the city of Las Vegas and the Mashantucket Pequot tribe; owners of the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut; all expressed interest in the property before backing out. Casino developer and gambler Bob Stupak announced a $20 million deal to purchase and renovate the property during his son's campaign for city council in 1999 without ever meeting with Maybie. Even Oprah Winfrey has been rumored to have an interest in purchasing the Moulin Rouge.

"Maybe that's something I should pursue," Maybie said. "It'd be great to have her on-board."

Previous owners James and Sarann Preddy and their son James Walker tried to secure funding to begin construction at the site. Even after the city of Las Vegas promised to guarantee any loan made to the Preddys and Walker up to $9.5 million, they could not obtain the money needed for the project and sold the property to Maybie.

Maybie, a Canadian with a reputation for restoring distressed properties, first announced that he would renovate and upgrade the property when he purchased the hotel/casino. Then in 1999, John Edmonds and the Nucleus Associates Local Development Co. won a $72,000 federal grant for a feasibility study on the Moulin Rouge. Edmonds said his group tried to buy the casino, but the $3.5 million price tag jumped by more than $8 million after the feasibility study calling for upwards of $50 million to create an 11-story hotel and neighborhood casino was released.

Before moving forward with the restoration in 1997, Maybie felt that acquiring the three other properties nearby was imperative. Maybie has spent $15 million purchasing and renovating the Treeline Park Condominiums and Desert Breeze apartment complex near the hotel/casino. Cleaning up the violence and crime in those properties, he said, was key to the Moulin Rouge being successful in a new era.

"I didn't feel that I could open a casino until the site was completely secure," he said. "Hopefully, the walls won't stay up forever."

Maybie has placed gates around the entire 13 acres and added 24-hour security, but the most important security move may have been building a six-foot block wall to keep drug dealers out of the apartment complexes. Maybie built the wall without getting approval from the city of Las Vegas, a move that damaged his relationship with the city, but he said it was necessary to make the area secure.

"They said I was creating a `prison-like environment,'" Maybie said. "That's ridiculous. You see block walls in Summerlin and Green Valley. They've got eight- and 10-foot block walls at Whispering Timbers."

After so many delays and strong opposition from the black community to Maybie's involvement with the casino, many people question whether or not he can actually do anything at the Moulin Rouge. He was supposed to have opened Maxine's four months ago, and Edmonds doesn't believe the phased redevelopment of the property can work.

"I'd be very surprised if Code Enforcement would allow him to open without spending big money," said Edmonds. "The Moulin Rouge has enough history and landmark status to be a viable entity, but piecemeal development is not appropriate for the community."

Maybie believes he can get the Moulin Rouge off the ground this time for two reasons: 1) After years of foot-dragging, the city has finally issued construction permits. 2) He is the first owner to control all the nearby property.

"Given the fact that there has been no success at the Moulin Rouge but for six-months in 1955, you have to ask, 'Is Bart Maybie crazy?'" said Katherine Duncan.

A former Las Vegas arts commissioner and executive at the Desert Inn, Duncan is executive director of the Moulin Rouge Preservation Association. The group plans to install a Moulin Rouge museum once the renovation is complete and Duncan steadfastly believes that Maybie has successfully cleared all major hurdles towards that goal.

"All the failed projects make people very leery about announcements," she said. "He's got to do it. He's the only owner that ever had enough money to do it."

Others aren't so sure. When asked about redevelopment at the Moulin Rouge in March, Gene Collins, the former president of the Las Vegas Chapter of the NAACP told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "I don't know what his plans are, but we've been down this road before."

Edmonds is even more blunt. "It can't work." The Moulin Rouge has no convention space, the showroom is too small and the hotel rooms are inadequate he said. "If (Maybie) wants a juke joint and relies on the derelicts around the building, I can't say he can't do that. To have something viable for the community, you have to spend more than peanuts."

Edmonds considers himself Maybie's friend, but blasts him for running a casino that shares a wall with three churches and stands less than 50 yards away from four more churches and a religious music store. "In one property, you can go to church, and in the other you can get drunk and gamble," he said. "It's hard to see how that is in the best interests of the community. How can he, in good conscience, have three churches basically in the same building?"

Maybie dismisses those concerns, saying the churches have signed off on his renovation plans. "Three of the ministers stood for me before the city council. Only in Las Vegas could this work."

Maybe said he can reopen the property for less than 10 percent of the $50 million called for in the feasibility study because the study looked at an entirely different project than the one he is planning. The study called for a demolition and construction project similar to the Aladdin's. Maybie plans to renovate the existing structure, replace the roof and possibly enlarge the 250-seat showroom, but the Moulin Rouge in 2003 will look much like it did in 1955. "The casino is well-built," he said. "It has another 35-years of life, easy."

As upbeat as Maybie and Duncan might be, as much as west Las Vegas might need the economic boost of a rejuvenated Moulin Rouge and as much money as the hotel/casino might someday make, this renovation plan might still collapse like the others. Construction on Maxine's was scheduled to begin Aug. 1. On that day, the same day Maybie was interviewed for this article, there wasn't a single construction worker in sight.