What was at one point the Flamingo Hilton in Reno had previously been two properties, joined together by Ernie Primm, and known as the Club Prima Donna, then The Primadonna, which in 1974 was purchased by the Del Webb Corp.
In 1978 the name was changed to Del Webb's Sahara Reno and the hotel-casino was later further expanded by absorbing more neighboring property. Then, in 1981, it was all sold to Hilton Hotel Corp., which changed the name of the principal hotel-casino on Sierra Street to the Hilton Reno (the original Primadonna operated as the Sahara Virginia Street Casino). And so it remained until 1989, when it was reopened as the Flamingo Hilton. In October 2001 Hilton casino-operating subsidiary Park Place Entertainment decided the property was no longer profitable and sold to Vista Hospitality LLC of New York. It remained closed until April of 2002, when it rose again, if not quite from ashes, as the Golden Phoenix.
However, the promised major renovation didn't happen and, until the summer of the following year, the property operated solely as a hotel, with one lone restaurant and no gaming. The eventual official "grand opening" wasn't actually that grand at all and the property, even with a reinstated casino, continued to struggle. This coincided with the condominium frenzy that was sweeping the nation and in 2004 Chicago developer Fernando Leal snapped up the Golden Phoenix, closing it on December 6 of the following year. In 2006, the process commenced of gutting the entire building at 2nd and Sierra Streets, which was stripped down to its original concrete support columns and then completely rebuilt as the residential Montage Reno, considered the largest adaptive-reuse project in the United States.
However, the economy was in free-fall and hoped-for restaurant and retail tenants all bailed. Facing foreclosure, in December 2008 Leal sold to ST Residential of Chicago (a subsidiary of Starwood Assets and Holdings), which today operates the upscale residential Montage units under the slogan of "vintage elegance, modern comfort."
So, there's the answer to your original question, but by chance the current writer has a little personal aside to add to this checkered history. Before joining Huntington Press a decade ago (I just realized I totally missed Question of the Day's 10th anniversary, which fell on May 1 -- it's okay, no cake or flowers necessary!), I was a freelance documentary producer and was living in Las Vegas while filming the Discovery Channel's "Casino Diaries" reality-TV series. A a former co-worker who'd returned to New York called one day and asked if I was available to fly up to Reno and film a segment for an entertainment-news show she was then working on for Showtime Networks. I was, so I found myself Reno-bound.
My assignment was to interview William H. Macy and Alec Baldwin, who were on location there filming The Cooler and, fortunately for the director (whose debut movie this was), his project coincided with the extended period after the Golden Phoenix had closed, but prior to the commencement of its dismantling. It was a ready-made casino set, with all the fixtures and fittings, but no pesky people -- a director's dream!
From my point of view, however, it almost turned into a nightmare, thanks to Kim Basinger and her acrimonious divorce from the notoriously feisty Baldwin, who was not speaking to the media on any account at that time. How this fact had failed to be made clear to my employer, I know not, but the Assistant Director of The Cooler was near-hysterical and feared my presence would cause the co-star to storm off the set and scupper the whole project.
Fortunately, however, William H. Macy was more than willing to grant me an interview and proved to be utterly charming. So, during a break in-between scenes, we set up for my Q&A session and it seemed as if everything was going to go smoothly ... until something went horribly wrong with the ancient air-conditioning system. Just as we started to talk, it began rumbling, banging, and growling -- it sounded as if we'd been swallowed by a dragon with a bellyache and no one could get it to stop. Good sport that he is, mercifully, Macy kindly kept referring to this unfortunate situation throughout the entire interview, which (perhaps?) saved the material from being completely unusable.
When we were done I was hanging around on set, super-discreetly, while waiting for my ride back to the airport, when out of nowhere Alec Baldwin returned and made a point of coming to hang out and chat with me! It turned out he and my father happened to favor the same bar at London's famous Dorchester hotel, a place with which I was also familiar, and he could not have been more charming, although I did not try to push my luck and suggest he might like to be interviewed. Whether the final piece ever actually aired or not on Showtime, I have no clue, but it was certainly a fun and interesting experience to watch a couple of scenes being filmed in such an evocative location. It's just a pity The Cooler sucked so badly as a movie -- but now you know where it was filmed!
