Las Vegas developer Sam Cherry has acquired the shuttered Bent Inn at Ogden Avenue and 11th Street for $3.2 million, planning to convert the 33-room hotel into a residential complex with studio apartments and a hospitality concept in the existing retail space. Cherry, chief executive of Cherry Development, said Thursday the project will cost just over $1 million and aims to open within 90 days, noting the property underwent extensive upgrades recently.
The purchase adds to Cherry's downtown portfolio, which includes the neighboring Share Downtown apartment complex and Soho Lofts, a condo tower he developed two decades ago. The announcement came during a celebration of his company's 25th anniversary, where Mayor Shelley Berkley presented him with a Key to the City, crediting him with helping reimagine downtown and making Las Vegas "a more livable and wonderful place to live."
The Bent Inn opened in fall 2023 as Las Vegas' only gay-owned boutique hotel but closed abruptly less than a year later amid a legal dispute with its general contractor. It reopened briefly before announcing its "final closure" in fall 2025, with management writing on social media, "Well, we tried... some things just aren't meant to be." Lenders foreclosed on the property in May, and Cherry purchased it from them, with the transaction closing Thursday.
Cherry said the acquisition provides connectivity to his adjacent properties and pointed to further downtown development opportunities, including roughly 11 acres of city-owned real estate and additional sites from the former Tony Hsieh portfolio. The late Zappos chief, who died in 2020, was one of downtown's largest property owners and left behind numerous vacant lots and motels that have since been demolished.
Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal
Original reporting: Las Vegas Review-Journal →
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