And Things That Go Boom in the Night
/We were rudely awakened around 2AM this morning by a loud boom, boom, BOOM… followed seconds later by another thunderous BOOM! Are we at war? A nearby explosion? Nope. It was a planned implosion of a local Boulder Strip casino less than a mile away. At 2:01AM, the Eastside Cannery was no more than a pile of rubble.
Though we anticipated the blast, we were surprised that it was so loud to have awakened us from a sound sleep. Those implosion folks make a lot of noise! We watched videos this morning as the ‘walls came tumbling down.’ See for yourself.
Opened in 2008, the 16-story Eastside Cannery was a hotel and casino built at an original cost of $250 million. We’re not gamblers, but we went to the Cannery a couple of times several years ago to visit Marilyn’s Lounge, a live-music venue that frequently hosted tribute bands. The property closed in March 2020 during the COVID pandemic and never reopened. It has been vacant ever since. We helped to distribute food from its parking lot during the pandemic.
There was lots of local TV coverage of the impending implosion. The Longhorn Casino directly across the street from the Eastside Cannery, took advantage of the opportunity and sold parking spaces for $25/piece and rooms for $250/night for a front row seat. Evidently, it was a popular venue last night. We were content to watch videos this morning.
What’s next for this large chunk of property on busy Boulder Highway? According to an AI synopsis, “Boyd Gaming plans to redevelop the 29.5-acre Eastside Cannery property on Boulder Highway into a residential community, with proposals including 400 to 500 units of single-family homes or townhouses.” We’ll be watching the new development. "Change is the only constant in life." – a rough translation by Heraclitus ~500BCE