On April 24, the Tropicana's Paradise Tower (the one closest to the Strip) was closed, taking 560 rooms out of action. Hotel management decided to shut them down after Clark County building inspectors discovered on April 23 that their plumbing wasn’t up to code.
But don't blame it on current ownership: "The renovation in question was done in the 1990s and the compliance issue had previously gone unnoticed," Trop President Ron Thacker told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That’s several changes of ownership ago, predating both Aztar Corp. and Columbia Sussex, not to mention transitional owner Tropicana Entertainment.
The decades-old plumbing problem could hardly have come at a more inopportune time, as the Trop was experiencing strong weekend business. Now it will have to meet that demand for an undetermined amount of time without its best 560 rooms (out of 1,878). To add insult to injury, the Trop would have to rent lodging at other competing hotels if Paradise Tower guests couldn't be squeezed in elsewhere on the property.
Although the Trop is emerging from Chapter 11, renovations are said to be already in progress. The entertainment lineup has been juggled, too. Current management's preference is to save money by "four-walling" its spaces (i.e., renting them to outside producers in return for a share of the gate receipts).
A new venue, The Cellar, hosts two shows: The Soprano's Last Supper and Hypnosis Unleashed. Comedy Stop has been evicted from the mezzanine-level theater and "Pitbull of Comedy" Bobby Slayton is now in residence.
It briefly looked as though Dirk Arthur's Xtreme Magic was history, but the Trop erred in its closing of Folies Bergere. Management lowered the curtain on 49-year-old Folies without having a replacement show lined up (nor had the Slayton deal been finalized). That left Arthur's afternoon show as the de facto marquee attraction and his contract was hastily extended into autumn.
But the Trop came perilously close to being a Vegas casino-hotel with no on-property entertainment. As for the Tiffany Theater, which now -- post-Folies -- sits dark, the Trop is reported to be deferring the issue to the next owner. That'd be Onex Corp., a Canadian firm that's scheduled to assume the direction of the Trop once the Nevada Gaming Commission approves the transaction. When that happens, the Trop will be under the oversight of Alex Yemenidjian. He certainly knows the neighborhood, having been president of MGM Grand, precursor of MGM Mirage, headquartered just across Tropicana Avenue.
