We’d heard the rumors, but now we are so excited to share that there is a single new owner of BOTH of these motel/hotel establishments here in Boulder City! Last week we got to chat with Steve Lu, who plunked down some big dough ($4 million total) on both the El Rancho Boulder Motel and the Boulder City Inn!
First, a bit about Steve himself. Currently he is living in Vegas after becoming a part of the great ‘California exodus’ in 2020. He’s been a commercial real estate developer for the past couple of decades, and decided it was time to cash in on several properties he had in CA. Coming out to Vegas, he heard about Boulder City and took a road trip out to our little slice of heaven and just like we always hear – loved our quaint, historic town.
Once his property sales had closed, he started looking for new opportunities and of course remembered how impressed with Boulder City he had been. We’ve heard quietly that the family owned El Rancho has been looking for a sales opportunity for a while now. You also may all remember that back in the spring of 2019, the Boulder City Inn was born from the wonderful renovation from that new owner who took over the older and run down Desert Inn. So, in the course of this sale now, that owner made a good flip for themselves on this purchase.
Steve tells us both properties still need some work and they are investing actively in updates as we speak. For the El Rancho, they are opening up and modernizing the external look of the place along with remodeling the rooms gradually. For the Boulder City Inn, the exterior was done by the prior owner, but the rooms still need some freshening up, so they are working on that as well. He says that the feedback they are getting from patrons has been encouraging so they are excited to continue this process.
Steve also tells us that the bulk of the staff is coming from locals, some of whom already reside within these same establishments so there is a solid sense of personal pride and ownership from his team. He said that buying both properties was a big investment, but with the two properties so close together it makes it actually easier to take on both projects, since they can easily share resources.
We just say, again – lucky us! Here we are with some wonderful new investment coming to Boulder City from people who are bullish on the opportunities they see in our home town, and we think that is great news for us all! Welcome to town Steve!
