Hard Rock Hotel and Casino (Las Vegas)

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
Location Paradise, Nevada 89169
Address 4455 Paradise Road
Opening date 1995 (1995)
Theme Rock and Roll
No. of rooms 1,503
Total gaming space 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2)
Signature attractions The Joint
Body English
Rehab
John Varvatos
Notable restaurants NOBU
35
Casino type Land-based
Owner Virgin Hotels (minority)
Operating license holder Warner Gaming
Renovated in 2001, 2009-2010
Website hardrockhotel.com

The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is a resort near the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned by Virgin Hotels in partnership with an investment group, and operated by Warner Gaming. It is planned to be renovated and rebranded as Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. The property is located on 16.7 acres (6.8 ha) on the corner of Harmon and Paradise Road.

Features of the property include the hotel tower, a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) casino, Tahitian-style beach and swimming pool, a nightclub, six restaurants, three cocktail lounges, several retail stores, a spa, a poker room, and "The Joint", a music venue. Hard Rock earns only about 30% of its revenue from gaming.

History

Hotel desk

The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino was a joint venture in 1995 of Harveys Lake Tahoe and Peter Morton, co-founder of the Hard Rock Cafe. In 1997, Morton bought out the entire project. It was expanded in 1999, and began another expansion in 2007. In June 2002 influential rock bassist John Entwistle of The Who died in one of the hotel's rooms. The hotel management originally refused to release the room number out of respect, but later reports indicate that Entwistle died in Room 658 (considered a "deluxe suite"). Many fans still pay tribute to Entwistle, by visiting the hotel.

On May 11, 2006, the Morgans Hotel Group signed definitive agreements with its partners to purchase the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. As part of the deal, MHG retains the rights to use the Hard Rock name for hotels and casinos in the Western United States and certain other territories, 23 acres (9.3 ha) of land for expansion on the corner of Harmon and Paradise for $770 million. Morgans operated the property and had a 12.8% equity partner in the venture along with DLJ Merchant Banking Partners until February 2011.[1] At that time, ownership of the hotel was turned over to Brookfield Asset Management, and operations were turned over to Warner Gaming.

On October 25, 2008, professional wrestling show TNA iMPACT! broadcast their first HD show from the building.

A multi-phase expansion in 2010 brought two new, modern hotel towers, including the boutique HRH tower, high fashion shopping from brands such as John Varvatos, several new restaurants and bars, a nightclub and a spa and health club, including Italian trattoria, LTO. The expansion tripled capacity at the pool, home of Rehab. "The Joint" tripled its seating capacity.

In March 2018, the Hard Rock was purchased by Virgin Hotels in partnership with a group of investment firms. Virgin founder Richard Branson announced plans to renovate the property and rebrand it as Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in late 2019.[2][3]

Entertainment

The Joint

The Joint is a rock club. The original "Joint" closed its doors in February 2009. The new "Joint" opened on April 17, 2009, with The Killers performing the inaugural concert. The opening weekend also included shows by Avenged Sevenfold on April 18 and Paul McCartney on April 19. The new venue is nearly twice the size of the original, holding up to 4,000 attendees, and features three levels including private skyboxes and VIP table seating.

Vanity nightclub

Vanity is the nightclub at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. It is part of the property expansion and occupies new space. Designed by Mr. Important, the 14,000-square-foot (1,300 m2) venue has two bars and 60 VIP booths. The signature feature of the club is the "cyclone" chandelier which sprawls over the dance floor. The chandelier has over 20,000 crystals, each lit with individually controlled full-color LED lights. It is open Friday through Sunday, with Thursday Sunday nights as "SIN Sundays". The other nights are "open format"; resident DJs Pauly D, Shift and DJ Five provide music on the weekends. The venue is co-owned by the hotel and Jason Giambi. The venue opened on December 31, 2009, and its grand opening weekend featured performances by DJ Vice and Bob Sinclar, as well as a party hosted by Sean "Diddy" Combs.

The former nightclub was Body English. Designed by Kelly Wearstler, the space featured two self-contained bars on different levels, a large dance floor, 48 VIP booths, and a vintage $250,000 Baccarat chandelier. Body English was the home of "Sunday Pervert School" and "Indulge Fridays", mainstays of Las Vegas nightlife. The Godskitchen party was also held at Body English every Wednesday, bringing headline dance music and talent to the venue. Body English was notably the first Las Vegas residency for the late DJ AM.

Prior to "Body English," the same space housed the nightclub "Baby's."

Wasted Space

Wasted Space was a nightlife entertainment outlet at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. It featured a stage dedicated to live music and has hosted acts including Pink, Filter, and Snow Patrol. It opened in June 2008 with performances by Gavin Rossdale and Camp Freddy. It was voted "Best New Bar" by Citylife Carey Hart. Baseball superstar Jason Giambi and musicians Benji and Joel Madden were also investors.

Wasted Space closed on September 19, 2010, with Alien Ant Farm as the closing act. The space was replaced by a Race and Sports book.[4]

Vinyl

The Vinyl venue opened August 24, 2012. Vinyl has a trendy industrial look and feel, featuring Chicago-common brick and cinderblock, wood floors and an exposed, sky-high ceiling. Along the perimeter of the venue is a bar where guests can watch all the action.

On June 17, 2018, the Vinyl highlighted on what turned out to be the final performance of legendary drummer Vinnie Paul, who died five days later.[5]

Other features

  • Hotel - an 11-story tower with 648 guestrooms, 64 suites and penthouses.
  • Casino - a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) casino that includes table games including, blackjack, roulette, and poker, and swim-up blackjack. The casino also features a high-limit slot machine room.
  • Meeting Space - over 60,000 square feet (5,600 m2) of meeting space and an additional 136,000 square feet (12,600 m2) of special event space.
  • Restaurants
    • 35 Steak and Martinis - Modern American Steakhouse
    • Culinary Dropout - Modern Gastro-pub & music venue
    • Mr. Lucky’s 24/7
    • Pink Taco - Mexican
    • The Ainsworth - Sports Lounge
    • Nobu - Japanese
  • Shops and Boutiques
    • Love Jones - boutique
    • The Hair Salon
    • Reliquary - Spa and Salon

Appearances in media

The hotel was featured in the film Con Air where the fugitive plane crashes through the hotel's prominent Fender Stratocaster guitar. The film, however, portrayed the hotel inaccurately located on Las Vegas Boulevard near the Stratosphere. The hotel is also featured prominently in the 3rd-season episode "Vegas Baby, Vegas!" of Entourage and also appears in the season 1 episode "The Strip" of Fox's The O.C., and on MTV's Bam's Unholy Union.

The original HRH sports bar, and several parts of the casino, as well as a suite were used in the 2001 movie "Tomcats"

The entrance to Hard Rock was used in the movie 21, and it featured a room where Ben and Jill made love, however in another inaccuracy in geography, it showed the Bellagio fountains as visible right outside their window. The Bellagio isn't visible from any room at the Hard Rock Hotel.

The guitar sign of the hotel was also featured in Urban Strike as a primary target in Las Vegas Mission. Canadian hard rock group My Darkest Days filmed their video for "Porn Star Dancin'" at the Vanity nightclub in 2010.[6]

Rehab and its security, bartending, and waitressing staffs are the subject of a reality TV series on TruTV entitled Rehab: Party at the Hard Rock Hotel. The third season of the show debuted on September 7, 2010.[7]

The Hotel is where the cast of the 25th season of The Real World resided and where The Real World: Las Vegas was filmed. Las Vegas' premiere on March 9, 2011 drew 1.7 million viewers to clinch the most viewers for its time slot (10pm) across all of TV from ages 12–35.[8]

The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is parodied in the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as the V-Rock Hotel.

Dutch DJ/Producer Tiësto named his anthology Club Life: Volume One Las Vegas in honor of the live set held by Tiësto at the Hard Rock Cafe & Casino, The Joint in Las Vegas, Nevada where he signed DJ Residency.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Arnold M. Knightly (2010-03-16). "Hard Rock cuts loss by 34 percent". Las Vegas Review-Journal.
  2. ↑ Eli Segall (March 30, 2018). "Richard Branson acquires Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  3. ↑ "Virgin Hotels announces it's headed to Las Vegas" (Press release). Virgin Hotels. March 30, 2018. Retrieved 2018-03-30 – via PR Newswire.
  4. ↑ http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2010/aug/09/wasted-space-close-hard-rock-casino/
  5. ↑ "Vinnie Paul Final Photo Before Death Revealed". Alternative Nation. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  6. ↑ Music video for Porn Star Dancing on YouTube
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ Ng, Philiana. "'Real World: Las Vegas' Debut Draws 1.7 Million Viewers". The Hollywood Reporter.
  9. ↑ "MTV News". MTV. Retrieved 2011-05-09.

Coordinates: 36°06′31″N 115°09′13″W / 36.10861°N 115.15361°W / 36.10861; -115.15361

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