Nightclub aims to draw stars, celebrities to Historic Westside

The percussive rumble of a drumline practicing at a nearby high school sends a rhythmic charge through the breezy night air, and it’s a fitting soundtrack: Terry Adams is on the march.

The veteran real estate investor is leading a tour of his latest endeavor: the West Side Oasis, an upscale new nightclub and restaurant on Las Vegas’ Historic Westside.

“We’re going to have a walk of fame going all the way around here with stars, athletes, you name it,” Adams explains while standing in front of the property on a recent Thursday evening.

The first person slated to be honored: R&B-soul great Lou Ragland, who passed away in his Las Vegas home last August at age 78.

“He fought real hard to upgrade the community,” Adams says.

Now Adams aims to carry on that fight with the West Side Oasis, which he hopes to develop into an opulent anchor for this part of town, a new development for an old stretch of Vegas.

“It’s an attraction to draw people to our neighborhood,” he says. “There’s a lot of history in this side of town. What we’re doing is amplifying, uplifting what it used to be. The dollars will stay in this community here if we can uplift it.”

A place for everybody

The bathroom mirror reflects his aspirations.

“See how big that mirror is right there?” Adams says from inside the West Side Oasis’ gleaming men’s room. “There’s a reason for it. Basketball players are close to seven feet tall.”

Adams envisions the Oasis as a destination spot for stars and professional athletes in addition to locals; he says Mike Tyson has already dropped by.

“In the neighborhood, it’s six degrees of separation,” he says. “You see somebody’s over in the projects, but guess what? Their brother plays professional basketball or their cousin plays professional basketball. Trust me, they’re going to bring them over here.”

While the restaurant isn’t open yet — it’ll debut later this spring — the kitchen is up and running with a soul-food-meets-Asian cuisine.

The nightclub boasts a chic, inviting air, with color-changing mood lighting that shifts from red to blue on this night, an R&B- and blues-leaning soundtrack played at modest volumes, a cozy, roped-off VIP area and a slick, polished black-and-brown decor.

There’s a dress code here and no swearing.

“It’s a place you bring your whole family, to get to know people you normally don’t talk to,” Adams says. “We’re trying to bring people together.”

‘The Apollo of Las Vegas’

The club’s address, 808 W. Lake Mead Ave., carries with it some kismet.

Eight-zero-eight is also the area code for Hawaii, where Adams lived for 27 years.

A native of Columbus, Ohio, Adams and his wife, Hiroe Adams, would vacation in Las Vegas four times annually, before relocating here.

Both are involved in real estate, and they began investing in this part of town.

“My first thought was buying property, making it better, so everybody else’s prices would go up and their homes would go up,” Adams says. “I’m here to make sure this whole area’s values go up, up, up.”

With the opening of the West Side Oasis, which the Adamses own along with partner Syanne Sasekhi, Adams says that he’s hoping to cultivate the cultural melting pot vibe of his former home state.

“Everybody does get along in Hawaii,” he says. “There’s a huge difference.”

He also plans on spotlighting local talent, with a podcast studio being constructed for streaming and interviews. “It’s going to be the back stories of the people that you know,” Adams says. He also plans live entertainment — from jazz to comedians and more.

“We’re going to be the Apollo of Las Vegas,” Adams contends. “The concept is the foundation for legends. There’s local musicians here who are just as good as the celebrities. So we give them a foundation to work on.”

Adams likens the vibe of the West Side Oasis to, among other things, that of a country club.

And membership is open to all.

“This is going to be mainstream,” he says. “Everybody can come here and feel comfortable.”

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @JasonBracelin on Twitter and @jbracelin76 on Instagram.