Struggling Las Vegas faced a new blow this week as a massive virtual arcade filed for bankruptcy after just one year of operation.

The Electric Playhouse in Las Vegas, a high-tech gaming and dining center located inside a mall at the world-renowned Caesars Palace resort, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday.

The filing notes that the company has between $1 million and $10 million in assets, but will not be able to pay unsecured creditors after administrative fees associated with the bankruptcy are paid.

It owes around $4.43 million to its largest 20 unsecured creditors, according to the Albuquerque Journal.  Its two largest debts are $2.5 million to a Boston-based contractor and $1.7 million to The Forum Shops for unpaid rent and maintenance fees.

In its filing, executives for The Electric Playhouse requested that the motions for bankruptcy be heard on an accelerated timeline so that current employees can be paid on Friday.

The filing comes just one year after the sprawling 10,000-square-foot gaming venue opened on the Vegas Strip, offering guests the opportunity to play an array of games using just their bodies and a digital avatar.

The facility, which remained open on Tuesday, is equipped with a network of sensors that track guests’ movements – and the walls and furniture of the kaleidoscopic, windowless rooms respond to the body movements to create interactive games.

Electronic Playhouse’s other location in Albuquerque, which opened in 2021, will not be affected by the bankruptcy, CEO Brandon Garrett said.

But it now remains unclear whether the giant Vegas location will shutter its doors, as a Chapter 11 filing allows businesses to reorganize their debts and continue their operation.

Still, the filing spells bad news for Las Vegas, which has seen tourism falter this year.

Visitors dropped by 6.7 percent compared to last August, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said.

The two prior months saw precipitous year-over-year losses of 11.3 and 12 percent in June and July, respectively.

Locals and longtime Las Vegas regulars now fear that the city is ‘dying‘ as a 55-acre office park was put up for sale without an asking price attached.

It marked a major downturn for the Hughes Center office park, whose former tenants include investment bank Morgan Stanley, as well as accounting firms Deloitte and EY.

In its heyday, the 1.5 million square feet office park – which is situated within reach of some of Vegas’s most important locations and main tourist attractions – was seen as one of the city’s most coveted real estate.

It had a ‘very attractive line up of customers,’ Crescent Real Estate said.

Michael Hsu, a CBRE broker and office specialist also working on the office park’s sale, said the Hughes Center had ‘high-quality space.’

But now, he said,  a shrewd buyer could purchase the site at a ‘significant discount’ compared to what it would cost to build the office park.

It is expected to sell for between $200 to $250 million, listing broker Michael Parks said, adding that his team was ‘casting a wide net’ to find a buyer for the site.

[H/T Daily Mail]