{"id":49059,"date":"2026-11-15T15:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-15T23:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/?p=49059"},"modified":"2026-11-15T15:13:49","modified_gmt":"2026-11-15T23:13:49","slug":"hsieh-family-cleans-house-at-downtown-project-fires-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/hsieh-family-cleans-house-at-downtown-project-fires-everyone\/","title":{"rendered":"Hsieh Family Cleans House at Downtown Project, Fires &#8220;Everyone&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A major shake-up is underway at Downtown Project (DTP), the downtown Las Vegas revitalization initiative founded by late Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.<\/p>\n<p>A source says the Hsieh family has cleaned house at Downtown Project, now known as DTP Companies, firing &#8220;everyone.&#8221; We&#8217;re never not calling it Downtown Project, just like Twitter will always be Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re told Michael Downs, Chief Operating Officer of DTP Companies, and Mark Carlson, Vice President of operations, have been fired, among others.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_49060\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49060\" style=\"width: 1400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-49060\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/dtp_logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1400\" height=\"933\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/dtp_logo.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/dtp_logo-924x615.jpg 924w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/dtp_logo-845x563.jpg 845w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/dtp_logo-423x282.jpg 423w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/dtp_logo-306x204.jpg 306w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/dtp_logo-190x126.jpg 190w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-49060\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fourteen years later, we may be witnessing the end of Tony Hsieh&#8217;s Downtown Project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The extent of the layoffs hasn&#8217;t been independently confirmed. We&#8217;ve reached out for additional details. No joke, we&#8217;ve been told there&#8217;s no one to ask because everyone at DTP has been let go.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s clear the Hsieh family has made the decision to dramatically change the direction of one of downtown&#8217;s most influential real estate and hospitality organizations.<\/p>\n<p>Downtown Project was launched in 2012 by Tony Hsieh, the entrepreneur who turned Zappos into an online retail powerhouse before selling the company to Amazon.<\/p>\n<p>Hsieh committed $350 million of his personal fortune to transforming downtown Las Vegas. The dream was to create a community of entrepreneurs, artists, restaurants, bars and tech startups.<\/p>\n<p>His DTP helped transform Fremont East and surrounding neighborhoods, acquiring dozens of properties and investing in businesses, residential developments and entertainment venues.<\/p>\n<p>Downtown Project rebranded as DTP Companies in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Hsieh died in November 2020 at age 46 following injuries sustained in a house fire in Connecticut.<\/p>\n<p>His death left a complicated financial mishigas (his supposed will is still being contested in court) and a metric ass-ton of downtown real estate holdings.<\/p>\n<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">Hsieh&#8217;s father, Richard, and brother, Andrew, were appointed co-special administrators of his estate on Dec. 3, 2020. Andrew subsequently resigned from that role in 2022.<\/p>\n<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">We&#8217;ve heard some wild stories about how Tony Hsieh&#8217;s estate has been administered. Basically, it&#8217;s an ongoing cluster. Despite announcing plans to sell nearly 100 of Hsieh&#8217;s downtown properties in 2021, the family has unloaded just a handful. Literally about a dozen. Recent sales have included Gold Spike and the Downtowner hotel.<\/p>\n<p>The reported purge raises significant questions about the future of DTP Companies and the family&#8217;s plans for its remaining downtown assets.<\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time DTP has experienced mass layoffs. In 2014, the organization eliminated 30 positions amid concerns about spending and financial sustainability.<\/p>\n<p>For an organization founded on connectedness, collaboration and community, getting rid of everyone at DTP is a crazy twist in the evolution of downtown Las Vegas, and further dismantles Tony Hsieh&#8217;s legacy.<\/p>\n<p>More as we hear it, as always.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A major shake-up is underway at Downtown Project (DTP), the downtown Las Vegas revitalization initiative founded by late Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. A source says the Hsieh family has cleaned house at Downtown Project, now known as DTP Companies, firing &#8220;everyone.&#8221; We&#8217;re never not calling it Downtown Project, just like Twitter will always be Twitter. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-downtownlasvegas","category-vegas"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hsieh Family Cleans House at Downtown Project, Fires &quot;Everyone&quot; | Vital Vegas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A major shake-up is underway at Downtown Project (DTP), the downtown Las Vegas revitalization initiative founded by late Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. A source\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/hsieh-family-cleans-house-at-downtown-project-fires-everyone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hsieh Family Cleans House at Downtown Project, Fires &quot;Everyone&quot; | Vital Vegas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A major shake-up is underway at Downtown Project (DTP), the downtown Las Vegas revitalization initiative founded by late Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. A source\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/hsieh-family-cleans-house-at-downtown-project-fires-everyone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Vital Vegas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VitalLasVegas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-11-15T23:05:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-11-15T23:13:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/dtp_logo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"933\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scott Roeben\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@vitalvegas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@vitalvegas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scott Roeben\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hsieh Family Cleans House at Downtown Project, Fires \"Everyone\" | Vital Vegas","description":"A major shake-up is underway at Downtown Project (DTP), the downtown Las Vegas revitalization initiative founded by late Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. 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