Yesterday, we related the back story of the Lake Tahoe hotel and casino once owned by Frank Sinatra and frequented by the rich and famous, but now fallen on hard times. Today we'll conclude with the current state of affairs and then look to the future, as much as our crystal ball permits.
In the spring of 2013 the troubled property, which had already closed its casino three years prior, was purchased by Napa-based developer Criswell-Radovan, LLC, which on September 5 of that year shuttered the rest of the facility, promising a complete renovation that was slated to be completed before the end of the following year, with hopes of a grand reopening on what would have been Frank Sinatra's 99th birthday.
Elements of the reborn Cal Neva were to include a non-smoking casino and a "carefully restored" showroom (which by then was in dire need of an overhaul). The iconic Circle Bar was to be preserved intact as well. Criswell-Radovan informed Bay Area real estate paper The Registry that, as for dining, "The resort’s three restaurants will include a fine dining restaurant with an exhibition kitchen, a casual three-meal restaurant adjacent to the pool – which will also serve a daily breakfast buffet – and a third outpost with a retail component that will transition from a morning bakery/café to a gourmet pizza and wine kitchen in the afternoon." Interior designer Paul Duesing was tapped to lead the restoration team.
The hotel had only a one-star rating at that point and partner Robert Radovan expressed his hope to get that up to a four-star ranking by giving the rooms "an elegant, clean, post-modern feel," by enlarging their windows and bathrooms, and bringing the amenities up to date. The outdoor pool would also be moved and transformed into a modern "infinity" affair.
In addition to unspecified entertainment offerings, "local community events and recitals" were promised for the showroom, which would be repainted, re-carpeted and have its sound system upgraded. "The acoustics in that place are amazing. The modernized equipment will allow for high-end concerts," Radovan told CTV News. Several wedding venues were also penciled in, with the goal of making the Cal Neva the Tahoe market’s premier spot for nuptials.
A return to a full-scale, 6,000-foot casino floor, with table games – managed by a third-party operator -- also figures in Radovan’s plans. Since the Cal Neva only has 191 hotel rooms and a smattering of cabins – of which Radovan figured to reopen five – its financial success will be heavily dependent on the casino for its revenue stream. However, previous owners had evidently run into hot water back in 2011 when they applied to the state Gaming Control Board to be permitted to operate 35 slots in the bar and lobby area. Official records indicate there were issues with the surveillance system and their request was denied, with permission grudgingly granted to operate a mere 16 machines. This presumably indicates that the Unrestricted Gaming License was being honored (the Restricted License under which gas stations, supermarkets, slot parlors, and the like operate limits their gaming inventory to "not more than 15 slot machines"), but only by a token single machine and only under strict condition of a 60-day follow-up inspection and the requisite standards maintained going forward.
Radovan predicted that his makeover would cost a "pretty penny" and here’s where the Cal Neva project seems to have come a-cropper. In November 2014, Hall Structured Finance announced that it had lent $29 million to Criswell-Radovan, even though Radovan had already claimed to have "secured all the financing … Everything is going really well." It transpired, however, that Criswell-Radovan had put $20 million of equity into the project on top of the Hall Structured Finance loan and while construction finally got underway, the goal posts have repeatedly been moved and a summer 2015 opening date was missed, as was a hoped for debut on Ole Blue Eyes' 100th birthday last week. (LVA tried to contact Radovan several times for an updated but was unsuccessful.)
But as much trouble as the Cal Neva has been for Radovan, has stuck with it and the latest news, which has not been publicized but which appears very much to be official, is that similar to Las Vegas' equally challenged SLS property, Sinatra's old private stomping ground now has an outside interest involved in the form of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. According to a listing on Starwood's website, it's incorporating the resort into its new Luxury Collection, with a specific opening date scheduled for May 26, 2016. We do note, however, that not a single of the properties listed in that collection includes a casino among its amenities.
Having checked out the records pertaining to Cal Neva's gaming license, the involved parties must collectively be hoping hard to finally make a deadline, because the property currently is basically "on ice" gaming-license wise and on November 11 of this year an extension was applied for, indicating the owners were already well aware that the following month's proposed opening date was going to be missed. The request was granted by the Nevada Gaming Control Board but it expires on June 29 next year, leaving Radovan and Starwood very little wiggle room to get the doors open and the dice rolling once more. There has been no announcement, as far as we're aware, regarding which third party operator might be in line to operate the casino, either.
We hope they make it. As Radovan told the Tahoe Daily Tribune, "There’s so much character to it, and some amazing history … it has great authenticity, something you seldom get the opportunity to work on. At the end of day, it was the first thing built on the lake where its spot was, that little peninsula on the North Shore … it's one of the things that doesn’t exist anywhere else on the North Shore, and it deserves to be brought back as the icon of Lake Tahoe."
