|
The
Tropicana Resort & Casino is located on the Las Vegas
Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Columbia
Sussex. The hotel has 1,871 rooms and is attached to a 61,000
square foot (5,667 m²) casino. The Tropicana also has
110,000 square feet of convention and exhibit space.
The
main original building, with the Garden room wings, was built
in 1957. The Paradise Tower, a hotel tower consisting of 21
floors of guest rooms and suites, was built in 1979 as the
Tiffany Tower, adjoining the resort's Tiffany Theatre, home
to the Folies Bergere production show. A 22-story Island Tower
was later constructed in 1986.
This
location, Tropicana - Las Vegas Boulevard intersection, has
the most hotel rooms of any intersection in the world and
as a result is extremely busy. Pedestrians are not allowed
to cross at street level. Instead, the Tropicana is linked
by overhead pedestrian bridges to its neighboring casinos:
to the north across Tropicana Avenue, the MGM Grand Las Vegas,
and to the west across the Strip, the Excalibur.
In March 2006, Aztar announced that it would be acquired by
Pinnacle Entertainment, Corporation of Las Vegas. However,
A bidding war for Aztar ensued with several different companies
battling for control of assets. In May of 2006, Kentucky based
hotel-casino operator Columbia Sussex won the bidding war,
agreeing to pay $2.75 billion for the company. The acquisition
was approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission on November 17,
2006 and is expected to be completed in December 2006.
On November 2, 2006, Columbia Sussex publicly announced a
$2 billion renovation of the Tropicana. Unlike previous Las
Vegas projects however, there will be no demolition of the
entire resort. The existing Paradise and Island towers will
receive both interior and exterior renovations and 4 new towers
will be built on the property (the last will be branded as
a separate hotel).
Also
unusual, is that the resort will remain open during the renovations,
which will increase the size of the hotel to over 8,000 rooms.
There are also plans to add a 600,000 square foot convention
center to the resort, which will be the 5th largest convention
center in Las Vegas; after the Las Vegas Convention Center,
the Sands Expo and Convention Center, the Mandalay Bay Convention
Center, and the convention center at Echelon Place (currently
in the planning stages).
|
|
