Nightlife

Mash-Up

The buzz about the Hive: a Weekly exclusive

Corporate by day, rockin’ out by night, 501 E. Fremont’s new tenants will bring their live-music venue and bar the Hive to the corner of Fremont and Las Vegas Boulevard this spring, with an opening aggressively slated for mid-April. Aggressive because if you could look into the cavernous 5,400-square-foot space now you’d see just concrete and exposed beams. The Weekly did just that and toured the site with senior co-managing partners Jim Reding and Robert Stamm, who have been developing on and around the Strip together for 10 years. Their most recent collaboration is the Cosmopolitan condo project.

The Hive, an “intimate showplace” for live concerts and headlining DJs, will offer performers a curved stage, large dance floor, merchandise counter, loading dock and green room with a private bar and dance floor. Guests will enjoy two bars downstairs and plenty of high-boy tables, as well as a 2,200-square-foot wrap-around balcony with another bar and dance floor overlooking the action below. Given the proposed schedule of 24/7, Reding and Stamm will draw a curtain over the stage when it’s not in use, making the bar the center of attention.

The team—which also includes event programmer Wayne Jeffries and lawyer J.T. Moran III—had originally set out to install a series of small bars and lounges around the Valley, “but when we saw this space, knowing that it would take a lot more money and a lot more effort to bring something special together that justifies this space, we decided to pour everything into this,” says Reding.

Outside, floor-to-ceiling windows make the exciting bar scene visible from across the Boulevard, where many Fremont pedestrians stop and turn around. The hipster crowd that already frequents Downtown’s new entertainment district will get to see the hottest bands in a 21-and-over environment. Who will grace the stage at the Hive’s grand opening? “If we had to name our dream band, it would probably be Social Distortion,” says Reding. “It would be,” agrees Stamm. “Or the Descendants.”

But the project doesn’t end there. Next door, at 503 Fremont, Reding and Stamm are installing a burger bar. With just a handful of tables, the ’50s-themed joint will serve up gourmet-quality grease to the late-night party crowd from an inside counter, as well as through a window into the Hive. Outside table seating will stretch all along their property to the club’s front doors. “We’re gonna pull out all the stops on the façade,” says Reding, who says that the Fremont East District association and the city have been generous with subsidies. “We found the magic: the location, the municipal support, a place to fit in the market and what we think is a dynamite brand and a great team.”

They must be jet-lagged

Forbes Traveler just named Sin City’s own Tao as one of the 10 hottest nightclubs in America. The Venetian’s Asian-themed megaclub was the only hot-spot from Las Vegas to make the list—a list dominated by five New York clubs but also including offerings from Miami, Aspen, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Forbes calls the “Venetian Hotel’s massive 10,000-square-foot club” an “old-timer” because it’s seven years old, which is peculiar, since Tao Las Vegas is only a little over two years old. Oops. It looks like Forbes’ list is so New York-influenced that the compilers accidentally put down the specs for Tao New York. Our Tao is actually 60,000 square feet (including the club, lounge, restaurant and rooftop Tao Beach), dwarfing the New York club. Well, thanks anyway, Forbes.

Tangerine ripe for a change ... again

We can’t ignore the fact that post-New Year’s Eve, the Vegas nightlife scene will be missing (for a time) one of its brightest stars. But as it seems redundant to rewrite history, we will give Al Gore his way on this one and recycle:

As printed in the August 2, 2007 issue of the Weekly [with amendments]:

“The fresh white booths, the juicy orange glow of the lights and the elite vibe of Tangerine’s Moonshine Wednesdays—get your last visits in soon as the boutique nightclub at TI will be closing its doors [after New Year’s Eve]. But since nothing in Vegas can pass without a big party, Tangerine’s grand closing will be celebrated in grand style as [Kevin Federline] hosts on [Monday, December 31]; construction begins that following Tuesday.

“A generic release went out [Thursday] to this effect, but the Weekly can surely do you one better: When the doors reopen [after] what is sure to be a New Year’s Eve extravaganza, we can expect to find 20 more VIP booths, roughly 1,000 additional square feet of party space and a slightly larger patio overlooking the Sirens’ lagoon. Though some have speculated that Tangerine would be annexed by neighboring Social House and take on its name, that is not so, though the space, we are told, will indeed have a slightly Asian feel to it, a nice complement to Pure Management Group’s first restaurant. A New York-based design firm has already completed the new club’s design and we are hearing ‘very elegant.’”

A source at Pure Management Group does add that adjacent to the new club will be a tattoo parlor and retail store.

  • Get More Stories from Thu, Dec 13, 2007
Top of Story