Tropicana Hotel Interior Casino Las Vegas Nevada 1982 Vintage Postcard Unposted

Description: 78415-D LV-63 Tropical Hotel Interior Casino © Las Vegas Novelty 1982 Made by Dexter Press, Inc., West Nyack, NY _______________________________ The Tropicana Las Vegas is a defunct casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned by Bally's Corporation, on land leased from Gaming and Leisure Properties. The complex occupies 35 acres (14 ha) at the southeast corner of the Tropicana – Las Vegas Boulevard intersection. The resort was conceived by Ben Jaffe, part owner of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. The $15 million Tropicana opened on April 4, 1957, as the most expensive Las Vegas resort developed up to that point. The Tropicana includes a 44,570 sq ft (4,141 m2) casino and 1,467 rooms. The hotel originally opened with low-rise structures containing 300 rooms, and the property would later launch several expansions, including two hotel towers added in 1979 and 1986 respectively. The latter tower was accompanied by the introduction of an island theme for the property. The Tropicana has been host to various live entertainment, including the topless showgirl revue known as Folies Bergere. It ended in 2009, after nearly 50 years, and remains the longest-running show in Las Vegas history. The Tropicana underwent numerous ownership changes throughout its history. Mob connections were present at the time of its opening, and an FBI investigation in 1979 uncovered a skimming operation at the resort. It was sold that year to Ramada Inns, which later transferred ownership to its spin-off company, Aztar Corporation, in 1989. During the 2000s, Aztar considered demolishing the Tropicana for development of a new resort, although this did not come to fruition. Columbia Sussex bought the resort in 2007, but lost it to bankruptcy two years later, with Onex Corporation emerging as the new owner. Onex launched a $180 million renovation, the property's first since 1986. The project was completed in 2011 and added a South Beach theme. Penn National Gaming bought the Tropicana in 2015, before selling it to Bally's in 2022. A year later, Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics reached an agreement with Bally's to demolish the Tropicana, making way for two new projects: a baseball stadium (tentatively the New Las Vegas Stadium) on nine acres of the site, and a new resort bearing the Bally's name on the remaining land. The Tropicana closed on April 2, 2024, and demolition is expected to be complete by October of the same year. HistoryDevelopment and openingThe Tropicana was conceived by Ben Jaffe, part owner of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. In 1955, Jaffe came to Las Vegas and bought the vacant property that would become the site of the Tropicana. M. Tony Sherman of Miami was the architect and Taylor Construction Company was the general contractor. Jaffe intended the Tropicana to be the finest hotel in Las Vegas. Construction ran over schedule and over budget, due in part to competition for labor with the under-construction Stardust, also on the Las Vegas Strip. Jaffe had to sell his interest in the Fontainebleau to complete the Tropicana. Originally proposed as a $4.5 million project, it ultimately cost $15 million, including $800,000 for decorating and tropical landscaping. It was the most expensive Las Vegas resort developed up to that point, beating the $8.5 million Riviera, which opened two years earlier. The Tropicana would be advertised as "the Tiffany of the Strip", in reference to the high-end jeweler Tiffany & Co. The project had 30 investors, including singer Morton Downey, who owned a five-percent interest. Jaffe first leased the property to Phil Kastel, who supervised the project during construction. However, the Gaming Control Board raised suspicions over Kastel's apparent links to organized crime, prompting him to sell his interest in the Tropicana in early 1957. This paved the way for the issuance of a gaming license.[ J. Kell Houssels, owner of the Las Vegas Club, was hired to operate the Tropicana casino. The Tropicana hosted a preview opening for local residents on April 3, 1957, before debuting to the general public a day later. The resort's involvement with organized crime was confirmed a month later, when a note bearing a Tropicana earnings figure was found in the possession of mobster Frank Costello, who was associated with Kastel. Costello had been shot in a failed assassination attempt, and police discovered the note while he was under hospital care. The control board subsequently investigated to determine whether Kastel was still secretly involved with the Tropicana. Kastel had publicly invested more than $300,000 in the project during construction, and the Nevada Tax Commission eventually ordered the Tropicana to rid its ties with him as soon as possible by paying off the debt owed to him.[18] The note was ultimately traced to Tropicana executive Louis Lederer and cashier Michael Tanico, both of whom would be removed from the property. Early ownership changesBy 1959, Houssels bought out Jaffe's interest, gaining a majority share in the Tropicana and becoming its new president. The Jaffe family, however, would retain ownership of the land for decades and continue leasing it. The Tropicana prospered throughout the next decade. Houssells sold out in 1968 to Trans-Texas Airways, for $8.7 million, but remained as manager for a few years. In the early 1970s, the Tropicana fared poorly from competition with larger, newer hotels like Caesars Palace and the Las Vegas Hilton. During this time, the Tropicana hosted annual fiesta parties to increase gaming revenue, inviting celebrities and high rollers to attend. Deil Gustafson, a Minnesota financier, bought the resort in 1972. Sammy Davis Jr. also purchased an eight-percent interest, becoming the first black person to own a share in a Strip resort. Gustafson undertook an expansion plan, but encountered financing difficulties. In 1974, brothers Edward and Fred Doumani took over management on an emergency basis after investing $1 million into the property. Mitzi Stauffer Briggs, heir to the Stauffer Chemical fortune, bought a majority interest in the Tropicana in 1975. Briggs said she knew "absolutely nothing about gambling or casinos", but invested in the Tropicana at the suggestion of a friend. Many of its top executives were either fired or resigned in 1976, as Briggs sought to make the resort profitable once again. She invested more than $6 million in the property. Briggs initially received only a probationary one-year gaming license, due to several business failures in her past. She received a full license in July 1977, and began construction of the property's first high-rise structure, the Tiffany Tower, which opened two years later. The casino floor was also renovated and expanded. The Tropicana became the target of a mob skimming operation in 1978. Joe Agosto, then-owner of the casino's Folies Bergere show, oversaw the siphoning of money from the cashier cage to the Kansas City crime family. The scheme was exposed in 1979 through "Operation Strawman", an FBI investigation into hidden mob interests in Las Vegas casinos. Due to her inexperience, Briggs had relied on the advice of Agosto, whom she found to be charming. Because they had allowed Agosto to manage the casino without a gaming license, Briggs and Gustafson faced revocation of their own licenses. They had little choice but to sell the Tropicana. Hotel chain Ramada Inns purchased the business in December 1979, along with a 50% share of the property's real estate that had been owned by the Doumanis. Briggs lost an estimated $44 million during her involvement with the Tropicana, and did not receive any of the profits from the Ramada purchase. The Doumani brothers and Gufstafson later accused Ramada of breaching its contract on the sale, winning a $34 million judgment in 1989. Gustafson was convicted in 1983 over a check kiting scheme involving the Tropicana, and served 40 months in prison. In 1995, he was also charged with bankruptcy fraud relating to the Tropicana's 1979 sale. He, in turn, named the Doumani brothers and two others involved in a scheme with him to divert money from the 1989 judgment; these four individuals were charged as well. Federal officials alleged that the diverted money had wound up in the possession of mobsters. Gustafson pled guilty and agreed to testify against the others. One defendant was dismissed because of lack of evidence, and the others were found not guilty in a 1998 trial. Later yearsAmid the early 1980s recession, Ramada began targeting a middle-class clientele for the Tropicana, which had lost the luxury prominence it once had. In 1986, the resort completed a $70 million expansion which included a second high-rise, the Island Tower. The project also introduced a five-acre pool area of man-made lagoons, waterfalls and islands, accompanied by floating blackjack tables. The property began marketing itself as the "Island of Las Vegas". Ramada spun off its gaming properties, including the Tropicana, in 1989 as Aztar Corporation. By the late 1990s, the Tropicana was largely seen as an aging, under-performing property in contrast to newer resorts on the Strip. In 1998, Aztar bought an option to acquire the 50% interest held by the Jaffe family, which would make future renovations easier to implement. Aztar, however, held off its buyout for several years to assess whether Las Vegas had been overbuilt with new hotels. The company eventually consolidated ownership of the Tropicana in 2002, buying the half interest in the land and buildings from the Jaffe family for $117.5 million. The sale opened up the possibility of redeveloping the Tropicana site. In 2003, Aztar unveiled potential plans for a $500 million expansion. The project would replace the northern half of the existing Tropicana facilities, adding additional rooms and timeshares. A decision about whether to proceed with these plans was expected in early 2004, but was pushed back by Aztar to focus on an expansion at its other Tropicana resort, located in Atlantic City. Following the latter's completion, Aztar would continue to put off its Las Vegas redevelopment plans to further evaluate the best use of the land. In 2006, Aztar unveiled new plans to demolish the Tropicana and build a $1.2 billion casino resort. Gaming analysts viewed the redevelopment plans as a certainty; Aztar had already hired Marnell Corrao Associates to manage construction, and sought bank financing to fund the project. However, a bidding war soon began for Aztar, with Ameristar Casinos, Columbia Sussex, and Pinnacle Entertainment competing to buy the company. Aztar was desired for its ownership of the Tropicana, which presented ample redevelopment opportunities. Columbia Sussex ultimately prevailed, finalizing its purchase in January 2007. Columbia Sussex planned to renovate the Tropicana as part of a $2 billion expansion project, adding five new towers for more than 8,000 rooms. However, this project was put on hold because of the financial crisis of 2007–2008, and it later became moot when Columbia Sussex's gaming arm filed for bankruptcy in 2008. The Tropicana, which had a $440 million secured loan against it, was bought from the bankrupt company in July 2009 by its creditors, led by Canadian private equity firm Onex Corporation and former MGM Mirage CEO Alex Yemenidjian, who took over as the Tropicana's CEO. The remainder of Columbia Sussex's gaming business, reorganized under new ownership as Tropicana Entertainment Inc., promptly sued the Las Vegas property, demanding royalties for use of the Tropicana name. The case was eventually settled, with the Tropicana Las Vegas receiving exclusive rights to use the name in the Las Vegas region, royalty-free. The original tower, seen before and after the 2010 renovationAmid the Great Recession, the Tropicana emphasized its cheap amenities to attract a value-conscious demographic. After taking over the Tropicana, Yemenidjian sought to update the property and transform it into a middle-class resort: "We're not interested in the very low end because there's no margin in that business. And we're not interested in the very high end because those customers have different expectations. The most successful properties in Las Vegas are both aspirational and accessible as opposed to those targeting a narrow market." Renovations began in August 2009, and cost $180 million. It marked the Tropicana's first major remodel in nearly 25 years, and added a South Beach theme to the property. Room renovations were completed in 2010, and work on the casino floor was expected to conclude by the end of the year. In August 2015, Penn National Gaming purchased the Tropicana for $360 million,[98][99][100] marking its first resort on the Strip.[101] During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Penn faced the prospect of financial issues brought on by resort closures. As a result, Penn sold the land occupied by the Tropicana to its spin-off company, Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. (GLPI). The land sold for $337.5 million in rent credits, and the sale was finalized in April 2020. Penn would continue to operate the Tropicana for another two years, or until the resort was sold. In April 2021, Bally's Corporation agreed to purchase the Tropicana, a deal that was finalized in September 2022. Bally's bought the non-land assets of the resort from GLPI and Penn for $148 million, and leased the land from GLPI for annual rent of $10.5 million. Plans were soon made to replace the Tropicana with a baseball stadium and a new casino resort. Closure and demolitionThe Tropicana's original hotel wings from 1957 were closed, without fanfare, in mid-November 2023. They were the oldest resort rooms on the Strip. The rest of the Tropicana ceased operations on April 2, 2024; the casino floor closed at 3:00 a.m., followed by the remainder of the property at 12:00 p.m. At the time of its closure, the Tropicana had 700 workers, some of whom had been with the property for decades. Prior to closing, Bally's chairman Soo Kim said, "The Trop is obviously iconic, but it is, really, in a lot of ways, economically obsolete. It literally is part of the glitz and glamour of Vegas, but it hasn't been that for decades." Katie Dowd of SFGate wrote that "decades of decay have already destroyed what's left of the world-famous Tropicana." Michael Green, a history professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), noted that, "Hotels built in the 1950s were not designed for the 2020s." He partly attributed the Tropicana's decline to the numerous ownership changes in its later years, which "meant different approaches, different plans. Then it was surrounded by these megaresorts. And in a sense, it tried to have its own niche by not being one of them and having amenities – but not the amenities to the degree the others did." Despite its age, the Tropicana was profitable at the time of its closure. A liquidation sale began not long after the property's closure, lasting about two months. It included entire furnished suites, as well as various items from the casino floor. Most of the gaming equipment was transferred to other Bally's properties. Some items and memorabilia will be donated to local organizations, including UNLV and the Neon Museum; the latter had already acquired a former Tropicana neon sign years earlier. Demolition got underway within a month of the property's closure. The hotel's two towers will be imploded by Controlled Demolition, Inc., which has handled Las Vegas implosions for decades. The presence of asbestos was confirmed in several hotel structures and will need to be removed ahead of demolition. The hotel towers were gutted to prepare for implosion, which is scheduled to take place on October 9, 2024; 2:30 a.m. The Tropicana will be the first Strip resort to be imploded since the Riviera in 2016. Redevelopment plansNew Las Vegas StadiumMain article: New Las Vegas StadiumThe Oakland Athletics, a Major League Baseball team, began considering a Las Vegas relocation in 2021, with the Tropicana property as a potential site for a new stadium. In May 2023, after more than a year of negotiations, the Oakland A's reached an agreement with Bally's and GLPI to demolish the Tropicana for redevelopment. The stadium will occupy nine acres. The stadium is expected to cost $1.5 billion, and a public financing package for up to $380 million was approved by the state in June 2023. Five months later, the Oakland A's relocation to Las Vegas was approved by the MLB. Construction of the stadium is scheduled to begin in April 2025, with completion in January 2028. New Bally's Las VegasWhile the stadium will occupy nine acres, Bally's will keep the remainder of the 35-acre (14 ha) site for a new casino resort. To be known as Bally's Las Vegas, it will include 1,500 rooms. There had previously been plans to rebrand the Tropicana as a Bally's property. The original Bally's Las Vegas, also on the Strip, was rebranded as Horseshoe Las Vegas in 2022. Bally's had more than $3 billion in long-term debt as of April 2024. The company stated there was no rush to build a new resort on the Tropicana site, instead focusing on other gaming projects, including Bally's Chicago and a possible New York property. Work on the new resort could begin some time during the stadium's construction or at a later point following the latter's completion. Bally's may also partner with another resort operator to begin the project sooner. It has been suggested that Bally's new property in Las Vegas could be developed similarly to their property in Chicago. Labor disputesSeveral bomb incidents occurred at Strip resorts in 1984, amid a labor dispute with local trade unions. The Tropicana was among those targeted, with an early morning blast damaging nine vehicles in its front parking lot. The casino's main show, Folies Bergere, was also closed for 11 weeks due to the dispute. Folies Bergere closed again in 1989, when its 14-crew musician team went on strike. The crew was represented by the American Federation of Musicians, and walked off the job after their contract expired without a deal for renewal. The closure of Folies Bergere affected 170 other workers involved in the show. It soon reopened with the use of taped music in place of live musicians, a practice that the union had opposed. The crew was ultimately fired, saving the Tropicana $600,000 in yearly salaries. The musician strike also affected several other resorts on the Strip. After seven months, the strike ended in 1990 with a new contract agreement. In 2001, table game dealers at the Tropicana voted to be represented by the Transport Workers Union, which later accused the casino of targeting its supporters The union's representation was decertified in 2002; of 147 dealers, 98 voted to decertify, while 38 voted in support of the union. The overall workforce at the Tropicana was represented by the Culinary Workers Union. Bill Yung, the founder and chief executive of Columbia Sussex, was opposed to union representation. When his company took over the Tropicana in 2007, it laid off more than 500 workers, including 300 Culinary members. Columbia Sussex also sought givebacks from the union during negotiations for a contract renewal. Talks between the two sides eventually became bitter and prolonged. In 2008, Yung was replaced by Scott Butera, who worked to negotiate a new contract with Culinary. Property overviewThe Tropicana occupies 35 acres (14 ha), at the southeast corner of the Tropicana – Las Vegas Boulevard intersection. Tropicana Avenue was originally known as Bond Road, and took on its current name in 1961, at the request of the Tropicana. In its final years, the casino floor measured 44,570 sq ft (4,141 m2).It included 600 slot machines and 19 table games. A section of the casino floor featured a stained-glass ceiling that covered 4,250 sq ft (395 m2). It was designed by Tony DeVroudes and created by Judson Studios, and was installed in 1979, at a cost of $1 million. Las Vegas architect Joel Bergman later said of the ceiling, "Nothing like that had been done before inside a casino. It changed the texture of design in Las Vegas." Bergman's firm was hired in 2010 to revamp the ceiling. Following the Tropicana's closure, the ceiling is expected to be donated to a historic group.

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