then she met tony hsieh and suddenly had a $250,000 loan. >> tony walked in to where i was at, and hed, "what size restaurant do you want?" and eight months later, i had my own restaurant. i paid back the loan in a year and three months, so it's a win-win situation for everybody. it's been amazing. across the street, there was a motel 6 right when i moved in here, and that was pretty much it. now there's five restaurants in the very close vicinity of here and other small businesses that are coming in. >> john curran is head of rgg, the downtown project's housing-development arm. >> here we've got glutton, which is sort of a gourmet-comfort-food concept. and right next door, it's got vegenation, which is an all vegan, or plant-powered, as they call it, restaurant. >> ♪ fremont street just can't be beat ♪ ♪ when lady luck shines on me >> downtown las vegas area had long been blighted, but they didn't want to disneyfy old vegas, so on the outside, the old vegas vibe remains, while the inside is completely transformed. >> so, john e. carson was a 64-unit extended-stay residence hotel. eac