Vegas4Visitors Weekly Column by Rick Garman


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News of the Week
March 26, 2007 Vegas4Visitors Weekly by Rick Garman

Tropicana Turns 50 Hard Rock Expansion Unveiled Show News & Notes Remodeling Fever Frontier Sale? Q&A: New Pools?	A Bigger, Better Rock

Hard Rock Expansion Unveiled The second iteration of an expansion project for the Hard Rock is not quite as, well, expansive as the first was but it’s still a big deal for the Off-Strip hotel, which will get about $750 million thrown at it to make it bigger and better all the way around. New owners Morgan’s Hotel Group unveiled the plans a couple of weeks ago, aimed at keeping the hotel relevant in the hyper-competitive “hot chicks and dudes” market that everyone seems to be going after these days. Two new hotel towers will be added including a 15-story, 550-room standard room tower and a 400-all-suite VIP tower. The bulk of this portion of the construction will happen behind the hotel along Harmon Avenue, replacing an apartment complex that sits there now. But the Paradise Road frontage will change dramatically as well. What is currently a parking lot will become 60,000-square feet of meeting and convention space along with a brand new “Joint.” That’s the name of their concert venue that has drawn a litany of big name rockers over the years. The new one will accommodate more than 2,000 people. The old Joint will be removed and the casino will be expanded adding a much-needed 35,000-square feet of space. The first expansion project was when the hotel was under the control of original owner Peter Morton, who had planned for more than $1 billion worth of new hotels and condos. Morton sold the hotel to Morgan’s last year. Construction on the expansion will begin in October and is expected to be completed by 2009, however much of the existing hotel including rooms and public spaces will start getting makeovers beginning within weeks. return to the top Show News & Notes As had been widely rumored, Cirque du Soleil announced their next production will be a magic themed show at Luxor featuring Criss Angel. The show will not open until 2008 and details were scarce about what it will actually be (except for the typical “things you’ve never seen before” kind of rhetoric), but the dreamy Cirque style and Angel’s cutting edge illusions seem like a good match. Angel is best known for his “Mindfreak” series on A&E and has been taping several new episodes in and around Las Vegas. The Tony-Award winning musical “Spamalot” will have its official premiere on March 31 at Wynn Las Vegas. The show is based on the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and features John O’Hurley, most often referred to as that J. Peterman guy from “Seinfeld” or the one that was robbed on “Dancing with the Stars” depending on your TV viewing habits. Tickets can be purchased online at wynnlasvegas.com or by calling 888-320-7110. Tickets are now on sale for the new “Stomp Out Loud” production slated to begin in April at Planet Hollywood/Aladdin. The production, billed as being a larger (and presumably louder) version of the off-Broadway hit featuring people creating music and dance with “found objects” like trash can lids, will open in a new theater for previews on March 24 with an official opening date of April 17. Tickets run from $50-$110 and can be reserved by calling 877-333-9474 or online at ticketmaster.com. The other upcoming show at Planet Hollywood, "Hans Klok - The Beauty of Magic" featuring Carmen Electra, is also selling tickets now. Preview performances begin at the end of April with the full premiere happening May 17. For tickets call 877-307-8667 or go online to ticketmaster.com. Finally, The Scintas show at The Sahara will be closing in mid-May although the group is reportedly in negotiations to move to a new venue. Long time readers will know of my, uh, “special” relationship with this show and I only have one word to say about this bit of news: Topeka. return to the top Remodeling Fever It’s a never ending battle in Las Vegas to remain relevant when it comes to hotel rooms, especially with such modern and large stunners as one will find at newer hotels like Wynn Las Vegas and Red Rock Resort. Older hotels – a term that these days applies to pretty much everything built before 2000 – are in a difficult position since they can’t make the rooms larger without reducing inventory, so instead they are redoing the décor to try to keep their product competitive. Several examples of this can be found around The Strip today including the new “Gold Class” rooms at Mandalay Bay and the “Go” rooms at the Flamingo. Several floors of rooms at Mandalay Bay were given the “Gold” treatment, turning what are pleasant if relatively staid rooms into sleekly modern beauties. Rooms range from 550 to 1,500 square feet and feature elegantly hip furnishings, pillow-top mattresses, 42” plasma televisions, iPod ready alarm clocks, wireless and high-speed Internet access, a mini-bar, and cordless phones in the room with stone and marble accents, a 15” LCD TV, a separate bath and shower, and twin vanities in the bathroom. The Flamingo is going retro-chic with their “Go” rooms, which put a 2007 spin on the Bugsy Seigel era. Flaming pink and bold earth tones are found in the décor but the rooms are dominated by shiny whites including the oversized vinyl headboard and wall draping. Each room features a pillow-top mattress, 42” flat panel televisions (plus another LCD in the bathroom), CD/DVD players, electronic window controls, Delta jetted shower fixtures, and amenities by Gilchrist and Soames. Meanwhile in Downtown Las Vegas golden oldies such as the Four Queens and El Cortez have recently completed top to bottom renovations of their rooms and much of the public spaces of the hotels. While they are in no way mean to try to compete with the Wynn Las Vegas’ of the world, they are certainly a much nicer product than what you used to find at these properties and among the best in the Downtown area. return to the top Frontier Sale? So was the Frontier sold this week or not? That was the big question on a lot of people’s minds when word leaked that El Ad Properties, an Israeli based company, had dropped a reported $40 million an acre for the aging Strip resort and its land. That’s over $1.3 billion in case you were wondering. Owner Phil Ruffin immediately stood up and said, “nope – not true” (or words to that effect), although he was cagey when pressed if there was any kind of negotiation going on between him and El Ad. All he would allow is that the company has been in contact but that’s about it and as far as he is concerned he is still moving forward with plans to tear down The Frontier and build is multi-billion Montreaux resort in its place. If it were true, this would not be El Ad’s first venture into the US hotel market. It owns the famed Plaza Hotel in New York and is currently renovating it from top to bottom to include residences and a more opulent offering. Speculation is they want to bring the Plaza brand to Vegas, although how that would compete with the existing Plaza hotel in the Downtown area is unclear. $40 million an acre is an exorbitant amount, even for Strip real estate, which is mostly considered to be worth in the $20-30 million an acre range. And you thought land was expensive where you lived, right? But regardless, something will almost definitely happen to the Frontier before 2008 when the first Trump International tower opens directly behind it. The high-end condo/hotel project is a partnership between Donald Trump and Ruffin and everyone believes that the residents of the new super-luxury building will consider having the Frontier sitting directly outside their front door akin to buying a mansion and having a double-wide parked on the front lawn. Stay tuned. return to the top
Feature of the Week

Tropicana Turns 50	Happy 50th

When the Tropicana opened on April 4, 1957, it was dubbed “The Tiffany of The Strip” by a publicist for the resort, a moniker that stuck for decades. The brainchild of the one of the owners of the famed Fountainbleau hotel in Miami, The Tropicana cost $15 million to build, an extravagant amount of money for the late 1950s. By way of comparison, the Stardust, which opened a year later, cost less and had nearly three times the number of rooms. Sitting on more than 30 acres and featuring a tropical pool surrounded by 300 rooms, the resort was an outpost of sorts for the Vegas Strip. Remember that the bulk of the activity was happening a mile up the road where you’d find places like The Sands, The Dunes, and The Flamingo swinging in full force. But down on the south end of The Strip the only other major property was The Hacienda, which had opened a year before across the street (where Mandalay Bay now sits). Unlike many of the other hotels that had recently opened and struggled (Riviera and Royal Nevada to name a couple), the Tropicana did fairly well financially from its opening day onward. Its mixture of personalized service and high-end amenities drew a well-heeled crowd that turned it into one of the “must visit” properties on The Strip. Over the years the hotel was expanded multiple times with several hundred rooms added shortly after it opened and then full room towers added in the late 70s and 80s. A bit of trivia – during this big expansion push, the hotel was owned by The Ramada hotel corporation. Much of the original footprint of the hotel still exists, although that will be changing this year as the bulk of the resort is torn down and rebuilt. An estimated $2 billion will be spent adding thousands of new hotel rooms, a new casino, restaurants and shopping, a new convention center, and pretty much new everything. About the only portions of the hotel that will remain are the two hotel towers that currently loom over the property, both of which will get top to bottom remodels to bring them inline with the new look and feel of the resort. The Tropicana will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the hotel on March 31 with a VIP event and several promotions for guests of the hotel and casino. For more information, visit the website at tropicanalv.com. return to the top
Question of the Week

From: Elaine in San Francisco, California Question: I’ve been hearing rumors that several Strip hotels are opening new pool areas or remodeling their existing ones. What have you heard? Answer: There are at least three new pool areas coming to the Strip this summer, although all of them will be adjuncts of existing pools and none of them will be places you can take little Billy to do belly-flops. Bare at The Mirage is the new European style beach club that will open in the next few weeks. It will feature topless sunbathing during the day and then be converted into an open-air nightclub once the sun goes down. The whole thing is being managed by the Light Group who does the very successful Light and Jet nightclubs plus restaurants like Fix and Stack. Tao Beach is the moniker given to a similarly styled club opening in May at The Venetian as an extension of the very popular nightclub at the hotel. The 18,000-square foot pool and club area will feature luxury cabanas, day beds, a 30-foot bar, and plenty of sun and topless fun during the day, then will change over into a nightclub complete with a “floating” dance floor and fourteen-foot fire columns. And over at Mandalay Bay, they are doing a major overhaul of their pool area. The existing wave pool, lazy river ride, and one of the main pools has already gotten a facelift and is open for business while construction continues into June on the remaining portions of the area. Expected in the revamped version will be an updated and expanded Moorea Beach Club (their version of the topless pool/nightclub concept), a revamped and expanded entrance, new cabanas, a store, a casino, and poolside villas for those with a lot of disposable income. return to the top