Venue Notes

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 4/10/2008 12:41:00 PM

• Designers in December completed a $60 million suite redesign of 424 rooms in the Bellagio Tower at Bellagio. The project, which included luxury and high-tech upgrades, began in July of last year. The purpose of the redesign was to upgrade rooms to the quality of those in the Spa Tower suites. Bellagio has 512 rooms and approximately 200,000 square feet of meeting and convention space.

• An Elvis-themed hotel and casino may be coming to the Strip in late 2012. FX Real Estate and Entertainment, the company that owns the licensing rights to the name and image of Elvis Presley, plans to build a $3.1 billion luxury hotel and casino on the 18 acres it owns across from MGM Mirage’s CityCenter. Pending financing, the project is scheduled to begin construction in early 2009. It includes 2,269 rooms and a 206,000 sq. ft. convention center. FX also is planning a separate joint-venture project with 778 hotel rooms and 147 condominium units for the development.  

• Owner Mark Brandenburg has sold a 50-percent interest in the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino to investment partnership company, Desert Rock Enterprises, owned by brothers Derek and Greg Stevens. The transaction, approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission, will provide the investment capital to transform the Golden Gate into a boutique hotel property, in part by remodeling its 106 rooms. Brandenburg will continue to manage the historic downtown property.  

• The Riviera Hotel & Casino is getting a multimillion dollar room revamp. Owners plan to renovate all of the property’s 2,075 rooms over the next two years. The first phase, due to be finished in October, is now underway, with 980 rooms in the Monaco Tower undergoing renovation and luxury upgrades. A casino and meeting space refurbishment project has also recently been completed. The Riviera has 150,000 sq. ft. of convention space.