Clark County Backs Insomniac’s Off-Strip Venue Plan

Clark County earmarks $10 million for a 5,000-capacity venue at the former Sahara Event Center

Published September 30, 2026

Clark County commissioners voted 6-0 on September 15 to earmark $10 million toward redeveloping the former Sahara Event Center, the long-vacant building at 800 Liberace Avenue that locals still call the Ice Palace. Insomniac, the promoter behind Electric Daisy Carnival, holds the lease and would run the site as a live music and special events venue. The money is an allocation, not a payment, and no opening date or venue name has been announced.

What Clark County’s $10 Million Covers

The earmark is designated for a future property purchase and building rehabilitation, and nothing is distributed until the county’s Redevelopment Agency and Insomniac sign a formal agreement spelling out qualifying expenses. Commissioner Tick Segerblom has said Insomniac plans to put in another $20 million of its own money. The county has been working on this stretch for years as part of a broader effort to revive the 30-acre Commercial Center district, and it bought the neighboring New Orleans Square shopping center in 2024. If you are in town for live music before the new room opens, concerts in Las Vegas cover everything from arena tours to theater residencies.

A 5,000-Capacity Room At 800 Liberace Avenue

An early county outline describes a main warehouse floor for 18-and-over live music with a capacity around 5,000, a separate 21-and-over upstairs lounge, and larger outdoor events in the county-owned parking lot next door. That layout is a proposal, not a final plan, and the capacity figure could move. The 30-acre district sits near Sahara Avenue and Maryland Parkway, less than a mile east of the Strip. Residents nearby have raised noise, traffic and safety concerns with the county, and the project still needs that formal agreement before any money changes hands.

What Is Already Open Near Sahara Avenue

The area is not a dead zone while the paperwork runs. SAHARA Las Vegas sits about three quarters of a mile west of the site and runs shows four nights a week. Magic Mike Live at SAHARA starts at $58 in a theater the show moved into after opening at the Hard Rock. Across town, AREA15 has become the city’s other off-Strip entertainment campus, with a cluster of attractions under one roof. Omega Mart at AREA15 is the anchor tenant there, at $43, and it is the closest thing Vegas has to the kind of district Commercial Center is trying to become.

Plan A Vegas Trip Around Live Music

Nothing at 800 Liberace Avenue is bookable yet, so treat this as a 2027-and-beyond story rather than something to plan a trip around this year. For the next few months, the live music you can actually buy sits on the Strip and at the arenas, and those dates move quickly once a tour is announced.