Alas, ST: The Experience Still Not Open at Neonopolis

Back on March 2, I told you that Star Trek: The Experience was going to re-open in downtown Las Vegas in Neonopolis. It was suppose to open in May in conjunction with the reboot movie by J.J. Abrams. So, when I went to Las Vegas last week, I was all excited about seeing the show’s new digs.

But there were no adverts about it.

So I asked the concierge. She, and her colleagues knew nothing about the reopening, and whey they called Neonopolis, they were told it wasn’t open yet.

Bummed, I took note and did some research upon my return. This is what I found out:

• CBS, which owns the license to Star Trek and its incarnations, put the kibosh on having the show open too close to the movie opening, thus potentially taking away business from the movie.
• Due to the economic downturn, construction throughout the city has been on hold and many places just don’t have the foot traffic to support them. In fact one buffet we went to was now only open for weekend brunch! And Neonopolis is still pretty much a ghost town.
• Current plans are to open the ST:TE sometime in 2010.
• Sometime in June the owner of Neonopolis was sued for non-payment … something about missing monthly payments for chilled water.
• And get this, in July, the Las Vegas construction company that removed hardware from ST:TE at the Hilton and restored the space has placed a lien against the hotel over claims it wasn’t paid for the work.

You can read more at these websites:

• www.lasvegasvegas.com/
• www.lasvegassun.com (The Kats Report)