Wade Bohn, owner of Jay’s Market on Flamingo Road, stands under the temporary bridge that was constructed in front of his business at the corner of Koval Lane and Flamingo as part of remaking the Resort Corridor for the Formula One race in November.
Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024 | 2 a.m.
The view of East Flamingo Road from Jay’s Market looks a lot different today than it did a year ago.
Owner Wade Bohn used to watch outside the window of his shop at Flamingo and Koval Lane as tourists walked by on their way to the Strip and cars passed or pulled into the Shell gas pumps in front.
Oftentimes, people would walk into his shop to grab a quick drink or snack on the way to their destination. Maybe they’d hit up the now-closed Port of Subs inside the store for a sandwich.
But now, business is a lot slower and all he sees is the quickly assembled Flamingo Road Bridge that was erected for the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix race in November. It still remains even weeks after the race concluded and, Bohn says, it is continuing to drive away his customers.
“I’m telling ya, if that bridge becomes permanent, I’ll be out of business 100%, no doubt about it,” Bohn said. “We don’t need F1, Vegas is its own animal. We sold our soul to F1 when F1 should’ve sold their soul to us.”
Bohn bought the property in 2006 and has been in the same spot since. It’s hard to miss the bright red paint covering Jay’s Market — a job done by the Coca-Cola Company in the past as part of the branding, Bohn said. He added that he was the owner of the only Coca Cola-branded convenience store in the world.
Thousands of people used to shop daily at Jay’s Market, according to Bohn’s records. But the numbers began dwindling starting last April when construction for the race started.
In December 2022, Bohn said his records showed he made $543,000 in total sales and saw 30,000 people walk through his doors. Last month, the store had sales of $380,000 and the number of customers had dropped to 18,000.
That includes weekends where profit was expected, including the two weeks of the National Finals Rodeo at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center, as well as New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Bohn said his total revenue for 2023 was down $4 million from 2022 when he reported revenue of $8.5 million. And where he used to have 12 employees, Bohn can now only employ five. The Port of Subs sandwich shop that Bohn was leasing his space to has exited as of last week, which Bohn said “had everything to do with (Formula One).”
“This is the only stretch of the racetrack where independent businesses are not attached to a casino or mall,” Bohn said. “We’re independent, sitting on a corner, nothing else is bringing it in, but I got gas and a convenience store.”
Days before the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, staged Nov. 16-18, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill said in a board meeting that conversations had begun about making the temporary bridge permanent.
The LVCVA has been speaking with Clark County as well as the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix team, which erected the bridge as a way to help vehicles reach the interior of the 3.8-mile F1 track that utilizes the intersecting Koval Lane.
At Tuesday’s Clark County Commission meeting, Lisa Mayo-DeRiso — a publicist representing some of the affected businesses — listed seven establishments that lost revenue due to race-related construction. The businesses: Jay’s Market, Stage Door Casino and Battista’s Hole in the Wall, Ellis Island, the Westin, ARCO, and Las Vegas Souvenirs and Gifts.
All seven were within the Formula One track off Koval Lane or close enough on Flamingo Road to be affected by related road closures and construction.
“Giving our public streets to a private enterprise who clearly did not understand or perhaps care about the impacts on a tourist destination that is like no other, Las Vegas, cost these small-business owners millions (in) losses,” Mayo-DeRiso told commissioners.
Mayo-DeRiso said she has heard over 15 local businesses “were negatively impacted by the F1 activities,” but is representing the seven “that experienced the biggest impact.”
In a statement to the Las Vegas Sun, the county did not say whether it had approached or spoken to any of the affected businesses Mayo-DeRiso mentioned but gave an update on the Flamingo Road bridge.
“The temporary bridge at Flamingo and Koval is being kept in place while our Public Works Department conducts a study to determine whether there is any benefit to traffic flow in the Resort Corridor to making it permanent,” the statement read. “We expect to have more information in about 90 days.”
Randy Markin — who owns the Stage Door Casino, Stage Door Liquor and Battista’s Hole in the Wall off Flamingo Road near the Linq — said the businesses have experienced a major dip in revenue and foot traffic.
Construction and repaving along Las Vegas Boulevard South and East Flamingo Road closed lanes, leading to sometimes hours-long traffic backups that made getting into Markin’s parking lot difficult.
Markin, 68, said his businesses have seen growth every year since he opened the casino in 1976 and purchased Battista’s Hole in the Wall shortly after, but 2023 was the first year he’s seen a loss in revenue. Total sales were down by over $1 million in his casino bar area, by $1.5 million at the liquor store and between $1.5 to $2 million at Battista’s, an Italian restaurant.
Every night, 100 to 200 people would cancel their reservations at Battista’s because they couldn’t get to the restaurant — not even taxicabs or rideshares would take people to that area, Markin said.
The losses are estimated to be about $6,000 for every 100 reservation cancellations, he explained. And it trickled down to his 110 employees, who went from making $1,000 in tips a night at areas like the bar to barely $25.
Markin cut his own salary to “take care of (my) kids,” a term he uses to refer to his employees.
Although revenue is almost back to normal in the casino and restaurant, Markin said he and many of the other business owners nearby — like Bohn — still feel the effects of Formula One’s impact. Many of the locals who frequented his bar found other places to hang out during the eight months of Formula One-related construction, and they haven’t returned.
The teardown of many racetrack elements, which Hill in November said would take about six to eight weeks, has continued to shut down lanes of nearby traffic and makes it hard for people to access Markin’s property, he said.
If the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix brings some of the same issues for Markin, he said he may have to shut down Stage Door Casino, Stage Door Liquor and Battista’s as well.
Nobody from the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix has spoken to any of the affected businesses, Markin and Bohn both said.
The convention authority deferred all questions on race construction to the county.
“We have the best hotels, we have the best Culinary and Bartender’s Union — they’re the hardest-working group around — we’ve got great county commissioners, we’ve got great Convention and Visitors Authority, but we all got fooled,” Markin said. “It’s just sad that this had to happen and we all got hurt.”
In early December, Markin said he met with Hill about ways to make “things right” for the group of affected businesses. Markin suggested the LVCVA write checks to some of the affected properties, purchase gift card vouchers from the businesses for items like gas or food and hand them out to employees on the Strip who also faced trouble before and during the race.
Hill acknowledged their struggles, but Markin said he has yet to hear from Hill since, other than a request for a site inspection at Battista’s.
Bohn and Markin believe the county commissioners also understand their plight and are willing to work with them to find solutions, one of which Bohn argues should be the removal of the temporary bridge.
The business owners said they don’t want to take any legal action against the county, Las Vegas Grand Prix team or LVCVA, but they’re ready to if necessary.
“What we don’t want to do is we do not want to make Vegas look bad in the eyes of any,” Bohn said. “We love Vegas; we want people coming here, we don’t want to give Vegas a black eye. What we want is Vegas … to understand what happened to us is wrong. They put us in this position, they need to compensate us for it and they need to have a plan going forward so that next year — and all the following years — we know what to do and how to do it.”
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