The Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino is a hotel, casino, and timeshare resort in Winchester, Nevada. Located near the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip, it is owned by Westgate Resorts. It opened in 1969 as the International Hotel, and was known for many years as the Las Vegas Hilton, then briefly as the LVH – Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. From 1981 to 1990, it was the largest hotel in the world.
The hotel and casino occupy a site on the east side of Paradise Road. The 30-story hotel tower is tall with 2,956 rooms. while the casino has of gaming space and a sportsbook called the Superbook. There are also a food court, a convention center, recreational amenities, and a Las Vegas Monorail station. Martin Stern designed the hotel in the International Style, with a Y-shaped design inspired by the UNESCO Headquarters. The property's entertainment venues include the 1,607-seat International Theater, the 400-seat Westgate Cabaret, and an attraction themed to Elvis Presley (a frequent performer in the hotel's early years). The resort formerly included an attraction called Star Trek: The Experience. The hotel has also hosted professional boxing and other sports.
After the site was acquired in 1967 by real estate developer Kirk Kerkorian, the International Hotel opened there on July 2, 1969. Hilton Hotels soon bought the hotel and renamed it the Las Vegas Hilton in July 1971, adding two expansions in 1975 and 1979. An arson in 1981 killed eight people and damaged the hotel. Hilton opened the Superbook in 1986 and added the Sky Villas in 1995. The resort was sold to Colony Capital for $280 million in 2004, but due to the Great Recession, Colony defaulted on its loans. The property was renamed LVH – Las Vegas Hotel and Casino in 2012, and Goldman Sachs and Gramercy Capital bought it that year. Westgate Resorts purchased the property in 2014 and subsequently began renovating it, converting rooms into timeshares.
Facilities The Westgate is located on a site on the east side of Paradise Road, approximately east of Las Vegas Boulevard. It is adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center to the south and Las Vegas Country Club to the east.
The hotel has 2,956 rooms. The hotel tower is tall, with 30 floors. The top floor consists of three "Sky Villas" geared towards "high roller" customers, each with a private swimming pool and at least of space.
The casino has of gaming space as of 2017, with 576 slot machines, 38 table games, a poker room with 7 tables, and a race and sports book. The casino's sportsbook, the SuperBook, is billed as the largest in the world.
The Westgate has various eateries, including fine dining restaurants, a buffet, and a food court. Benihana Village, opened in 1974, is a Japanese-themed area with streams and gardens, with several restaurants centered around its namesake teppanyaki grill.
The Westgate's convention center has of event space, including the Paradise Event Center (formerly the Hilton Center) and the Pavilion (formerly the Hilton Pavilion).
Recreation amenities at the Westgate include a pool deck, a fitness center, a spa, and six tennis courts. The hotel also has several retail shops, a wedding chapel, and a business center.
The Westgate station of the Las Vegas Monorail is located at the front of the property. The Vegas Loop can also be found here.
History International Hotel (1969–1971)
The hotel site was previously part of the grounds of Las Vegas Park, a defunct racetrack. In 1965, the track site was purchased by National Equities, a real estate development firm chaired by Marvin Kratter. Kratter announced development plans for the site to include a 40-floor, 1,500-room hotel, as well as a golf course and private homes.
Meanwhile, Kirk Kerkorian, the chairman of Trans International Airlines and landlord of Caesars Palace, began formulating plans to build a 1,000-room casino hotel in Las Vegas. After considering several potential locations, he selected the racetrack site, reasoning that it was natural to put a hotel next to the Convention Center. Kratter had decided not to build a hotel himself, and in 1967, National Equities sold a portion of the site to Kerkorian for $5 million. Kerkorian announced that he would build a 30-story hotel with 1,510 rooms, at a cost of $50 million. Some believed it was very risky to build such a property away from the Strip, but Kerkorian believed that it would spark the development of a "second Strip" along Paradise Road.
Kerkorian's hotel would be named the International Hotel, matching the name of Kratter's International Country Club (now the Las Vegas Country Club). He hired airline executive Fred Benninger to oversee the development, and Martin Stern Jr., who had designed several noted Las Vegas high-rises, as the hotel's architect. The general contractor selected to build the hotel was Taylor Construction Co. Construction began with an elaborate groundbreaking ceremony in February 1968.
With planning for the hotel underway, Kerkorian purchased the Flamingo casino, to serve as a training ground for the International's staff. (Part 2 of article) Later, during the International's construction, Kerkorian formed the publicly traded company International Leisure to own the two casinos.
Howard Hughes, the eccentric billionaire who had purchased several Las Vegas casinos, saw Kerkorian as a rival and the International as unwelcome competition. He attempted to deter Kerkorian from building the project, first by making a sham announcement of a major planned expansion of his Sands Hotel, and then by conveying false claims to Kerkorian about damage to buildings from nearby nuclear tests. When these ruses failed, Hughes schemed to buy the project from Kerkorian and halt its construction, but this plan came to nothing. Ultimately, Hughes decided to compete head-on with the International by purchasing the unfinished Landmark Hotel and Casino, located across the street. Hughes completed construction of the Landmark and opened it one day before Kerkorian's hotel.
The International Hotel opened on July 2, 1969. At the time, it was Nevada's tallest building and largest hotel. Entertainment director Bill Miller signed Barbra Streisand to open in the showroom, along with Peggy Lee performing in the hotel's lounge.
In keeping with the hotel's name, rooms were furnished with different international decors, with each floor featuring either a Spanish, Italian, or French theme. There was also a complex of international restaurants, offering Bavarian, Italian, Japanese and Mexican cuisines. Employees were outfitted in costumes from different cultures, such as Scottish kilts, Slavic shirts, and French gendarme uniforms.
On July 31, 1969, immediately following Streisand's engagement, Elvis Presley performed the first show of what would become a seven-year run at the hotel, encompassing 636 consecutive sold-out shows. Many of the performers who worked the International before Presley were upset at their disrupted prospects.
Late in 1969, Kerkorian made plans to raise $29 million through a secondary offering of International Leisure stock. He needed the money to help pay off loans that he had taken out to purchase major stakes in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Western Airlines. The offering was rejected, however, by the Securities and Exchange Commission, because the company was unable to provide five years of financial history for the Flamingo. Short on cash, Kerkorian was forced to put International Leisure up for sale.
Las Vegas Hilton (1971–2012)
In 1970 and 1971, Kerkorian sold his shares of International Leisure to Hilton Hotels. The International was renamed the Las Vegas Hilton in July 1971. Hilton took complete ownership in 1972, acquiring all outstanding shares of International Leisure.
The hotel had performed unevenly in its early years as the International, but as the Hilton, it soon came to be regarded as the most successful hotel in Las Vegas.
An east tower extension with 620 rooms was completed in 1975 at a cost of $20 million. In 1977, the hotel opened the Hilton Pavilion, a $7.5-million venue for sports and entertainment events, with a seating capacity of up to 5,000 people. A $23-million expansion added another 644 rooms to the north tower. The general contractor selected to build the expansion was Del E. Webb Corporation. Ground was broken in 1977 and it was completed in 1979.
1981 fire On the night of February 10, 1981, a major fire occurred at the Hilton. Philip Bruce Cline, a hotel busboy who was under the influence of drugs, set fire to a curtain in an elevator lobby on the eighth floor of the east tower. The fire spread to the exterior of the tower and then traveled up to the top of the building within 25 minutes. Eight people were killed, and approximately 350 were injured, including 48 firefighters. Among the victims treated for smoke inhalation was singer Natalie Cole.
The casino and hotel reopened nine days after the fire with 1,000 available rooms. The rest of the rooms were repaired over the following three months, at an estimated cost of $10 million.
Cline was convicted in 1982 of arson and murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Hilton and other companies involved in the hotel paid a $23 million settlement to victims. The tragedy, in combination with the MGM Grand fire that had occurred months earlier, inspired major changes to Nevada's fire safety regulations.
1981–2012
Around the end of 1981, another extension to the north tower was completed, adding 391 rooms at a cost of $21 million. This made the Las Vegas Hilton the largest hotel in the world, with a total of 3,174 rooms. (The Rossiya Hotel in Moscow had more rooms, but was not deemed to be a larger hotel by the Guinness Book of World Records because many of its rooms were used as dormitories.) It held this title until 1990, when it was surpassed by the Flamingo.
In 1984, the hotel completed construction of the $10-million Hilton Center, a convention and event space at the southwest corner of the property, west of the Hilton Pavilion.
In 1986, amid growing popularity of sports betting in Nevada, the Hilton opened its race and sports book, the Superbook, at a cost of $17 million.
In 1991, the Hilton was at the center of the Tailhook scandal, in which numerous United States Navy officers were accused of acts of sexual assault during a convention at the hotel. One of the victims, Paula Coughlin, sued the Hilton for providing inadequate security for the convention, and eventually was paid a $5.2 million judgment. The lawsuit led Hilton to successfully lobby for the so-called "Tailhook bill", a state law shielding hotels from liability for injuries to patrons caused by third parties.
The property's original marquee sign was approximately tall and stood for 24 years, until it was removed in 1993. The hotel completed a new , $4-million marquee sign in 1994. Later that year, however, it was partially destroyed by a windstorm. The sign was reconstructed in 1997 for $9 million with a reduced height of , making it the world's tallest free-standing advertising sign.
In 1994, the hotel entered an arrangement with the Sahara Country Club, which was renamed as the Las Vegas Hilton Country Club. This lasted until 1997, when the course became the Las Vegas National Golf Club. Hilton attempted to buy the neighboring Las Vegas Country Club the following year, but its $60-million offer was rejected.
In 1995, the Hilton completed a $40-million renovation of its penthouse floor to construct the Sky Villas. The hotel also spent $12 million on a new room for baccarat, a favorite game of Asian high rollers. The Hilton at the time was one of only four Las Vegas casinos able to compete for the business of the "whales", the top tier of high rollers.
In 1998, Hilton spun off its casino properties, including the Las Vegas Hilton, as Park Place Entertainment.