Map of The Quad
After 33 years as the Imperial Palace, the Las Vegas Strip resort will become the Quad Resort & Casino, Caesars Entertainment announced today.
The Quad will be the gateway to Caesars’ new Linq retail and entertainment district.
As part of the resort’s transformation, improvements will be made in phases to the exterior façade, porte cochere, front desk, bell desk, hotel lobby, casino floor, retail promenade and dining levels. The resort will remain open during construction that will continue through next year.
After December, the property will cease to be known as the Imperial Palace. But a new sign isn’t set to go up until a new facade is completed, near the end of 2013.
“As we renovate and modernize the property, it was only appropriate that we also update the name,” Rick Mazer, the resort’s president, said in a statement.
The Quad will feature contemporary designs and fixtures, a dual-sided lobby bar, a Starbucks and new retail and dining areas.
The Friedmutter Group, whose work includes the Cosmopolitan and Red Rock Resort, will oversee the interior design. Klai Juba Architects, who worked on Mandalay Bay and the Eastside Cannery, will handle exterior and structural improvements.
The Quad will retain the current number of 2,543 rooms and suites, along with many other features of the Palace. Those include the Shangri-la Pool, Embers steakhouse, Burger Palace, Betty’s Diner, Genseng 3, Quesadilla and the Emperor’s Buffet.
The changes also will include adding 15,000 square feet of gaming space. The casino floor is now about 50,000 square feet.
New entrances also will be added. The front door of the Quad will move from the Strip to the north side of the building, with access from Koval Lane or the Harrah’s tunnel. A pedestrian walkway will connect Harrah’s Carnaval Court to the south side of the Quad, eventually leading pedestrians to the Linq and the High Roller Observation Wheel. The $550 million Linq complex also is scheduled to open next year.
Hotel guests will begin to see the first phases of renovations completed by November, Caesars officials said.
A new check-in and bell desk already are finished, and a new valet area is expected to be in place in the coming weeks.
Frank Marino’s "Divas Las Vegas" show, the Imperial Palace’s auto collections and the Hash House A Go Go restaurant will continue to operate during the renovations.
This isn’t the first name change for the property.
It was the Flamingo Capri when Ralph Engelstad purchased the decaying property in 1971. He added buildings and a casino and reopened it a year later. In 1979, he renamed it the Imperial Palace.
Engelstad died in 2002.
Caesars Entertainment, then operating as Harrah’s, bought the casino for $370 million in 2005.