This was going to be our year. An astonishing series of dynamic projects was set to roll out in 2020, finally marking our full recovery from the recession, further diversifying our tourism economy and elevating the destination of Las Vegas to new heights. If you weren’t excited about 2020, you weren’t paying attention.

Then this all happened, and now here we are. We’ve been dealt some bad hands in this new millennium, but this is clearly the worst. A pandemic can be an existential threat, but this one hit Vegas in a uniquely devastating way.

But the magnificent future that was going to begin in 2020 has so far only been paused, not destroyed. Las Vegans and Nevadans are working hard to make sure of that. We have a lot to look forward to, even if we’re not sure how far ahead we’ll need to look.

Allegiant Stadium is real, and it’s fantastic. Garth Brooks sold more than 65,000 tickets in 75 minutes for his tour stop there, now set for February 27, and the Raiders are set to take their new field for the first time on September 21 for a Week 2 game against New Orleans. But even if those events don’t come to pass—or they continue on without a live audience—this huge step forward for sports and entertainment in Las Vegas cannot be undone. When stadium-sized fun returns, we’ll have the best and newest version sitting just off the Strip.

New hotel towers have risen: Circa will be the first brand-new Downtown resort in four decades when it opens ahead of schedule in October, featuring the world’s largest sportsbook and a year-round pool amphitheater on the fifth floor. And the long-awaited Resorts World Las Vegas is set to debut on the Strip next summer. Like its cross-Boulevard neighbor Wynn Las Vegas, the new luxury property recently announced intentions to build a station and a tunnel to connect it to the Las Vegas Convention Center expansion and its underground transportation system created by Elon Musk’s Boring Company. That first-of-its-kind development should generate extra buzz and could help spark a transit evolution throughout the tourist corridor.

Adding 1.4 million square feet of space to one of the country’s biggest and best meeting facilities is without question a game-changer, and the convention center’s expansion is on course to welcome events in the first quarter. The relationship between the city’s growth as a business destination, the addition of thousands of hotel rooms (Virgin Las Vegas is also scheduled to open later this year at the former Hard Rock Hotel) and big, new special events is something that only happens here. (Yeah, that’s where they got that slogan.)

Our bright future has already started to arrive. It’s temporarily and unfairly out of reach, but it’s there. And while it’s difficult in these trying times to summon a strong sense of hope, or even to decide where and how to spend that hope, it’s quietly reassuring to realize this stuff doesn’t require it. The pieces are in place. We’ll be ready to have our big year as soon as it can happen again.