Tropicana Resort & Casino

The Tropicana Resort & Casino is located on the Las Vegas Strip, in Paradise, 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.

History

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 was completed in December of that year.

Film history

* A scene from Folies Bergere is featured in the 1964 Elvis Presley film Viva Las Vegas.

* In the 7th James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever, 007 stays at the hotel Tropicana, claiming it looks “quite comfortable”.

* It is also mentioned briefly in The Godfather Part II.

* It was featured on the TV Show Angel in the episode “The House Always Wins” as the casino where the character Lorne had his show.

Future Plans

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).

Present Amenities and Entertainment

In addition to the casino, the Tropicana includes a showroom, spa, comedy club, swimming pool and numerous shops. The Tropicana is home to Folies Bergere, the quintessential Las Vegas Showgirls show offering covered and topless shows nightly in the Tiffany Theatre. The show’s run began on Christmas Eve, 1959. With 2007 marking the show’s 48th continuous year, Folies is the longest running stage production in Las Vegas.

Among the hotel’s exhibitions are Titanic—the Artifacts Exhibition, with more than 300 artifacts from the ocean liner. The exhibition began in 2005 and will continue through 2007. Other recent shows include Xtreme Magic, a production show starring Dirk Arthur, featuring tigers and leopards, and Bodies: The Exhibition, a respectful presentation of 21 human bodies that have been dissected and preserved for the collection.