This page celebrates the reinventing of the Tropicana Hotel and Casino.  Unlike her long-gone sisters, the Trop will remain the Trop.  Work is underway to remake the entire resort.

We will track her progress and share historic photos and facts of the ol' lady during the renovation.

News - The new Tropiacan lands the Forbes 3 Star Award

The Latest Plans & Progress Photos

The current $100 million+-plans are to remodel the casino, all existing restaurants and bars, the show room, convention center, guest rooms and the pool.  A new bar in the center of the casino as well as a new sports book and poker room will be added.  They also plan to extend the bridge from Excalibur and MGM Grand directly into the casino.  Lastly and certainly not "leastly", The Strip-front exterior will get a fresh new look, removing the ugly makeover from 1996 (thank God).

                                

                         To start things off, the Trop gets a new logo.    

A new rendering showing the new glass inserts in the old Tiffany framework





PHOTOS COURTESY TROPICANA LAS VEGAS INC.

The new rooms (below) are quite nice especially the fresh bathrooms. These rooms debuted in the spring of 2010
                              A rough rendering of the initially proposed exterior          
PHOTOS COURTESY TROPICANA LAS VEGAS INC.



The glass in the worlds largest Tiffany piece will be replaced for the makeover
Photo Dpirot from webshots

 

Below are some construction photos showing the progress 
Join the discussion about the Trop on the Blog
 

A whole lotta demo goin' on



The aerial photo (above) shows (what was) The Cellar which is being destroyed to make room for a new nightclub. Also, the 300-wing is being removed (don't worry, the rest of the Garden Rooms will be renovated) to open up that area for a new entrance that will serve the new nightclub.
Let's discuss this on the blog
 

Tropicana  Construction Photos

Some destruction is happening at the Trop.

See the aerial photo (above) for an explanation.

Photos 10/6/10 by Joel Rosales of LeavingLV.net

The casino renovation is still underway, we see the new lighting and carpet in these shots.



The Porte Cochère work is almost complete.




The "Fantasy Island" facade will not be removed during this phase of the renovation, instead, it received an all-white paint job and new roofs. 

Photos 8/12/10 by Mark Adams
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The casino is starting to look pretty fly. The pit is finished with new white marble, carpet, gaming tables and chairs. I also noticed several new slot machines scattered about the casino. They are still undecided about the Tiffany ceiling and are considering many different options.




Out side, the deconstruction has begun - removing the garish Fantasy Island facade. It looks as if their attempt to "white-out" the Islands Tower has failed as there are many ripped window coverings after last weeks high winds.


 

The south half of the pool area is almost completed with new decking and sod while the north half is still dammed off and under construction.

All photos 4/14/10 by Mark Adams
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The first four shots show the beginning of the remodeling of the casino. I peeked behind the temporary wall under the (soon to be removed) Tiffany  canopy and saw a new white marble floor.

The fifth shot shows the (now removed) sign on Tropicana Ave., getting ready for the new sign and logo.

The next photo shows the completed bridge between the casino and Paradise Tower.

The last two shots show some progress in the pool area.

All photos 3/22/10 by Mark Adams

Join the discussion about the Trop on the Blog

Work begins

Photos 12/19/09 by Mark Adams

Tropicana News and Views

NEWS 12/20/09  The new owners are spending $100 million, remaking the entire resort in a South Florida Deco Tropical motif. 

NEWS 7/17/07   Renovation plans on hold until 2008 due to a volatile debt market and rising construction costs.

NEWS 4/4/07   The Tropicana celebrates her 50th birthday. "Happy Birthday baby, and many many more".

NEWS 12/26/06   Columbia Sussex, the new owners of the Tropicana, announced a $2.5-billion plan for the ageing, 34-acre property. The plan is to keep the most of existing towers, giving them interior and exterior renovations. They will also build four more towers; two of them for the Trop, another for a new hotel (which will have a different hotel brand), and the fourth a condo-hotel. In all, the complex will boast 10,224-rooms. A 645,000-sq. ft. convention center, 273,000 sq. ft. of retail space and new 85,460-sq. ft. casino are also part of the plans.

The Tropicana will remain open during the process, with sections being renovated. Columbia Sussex wants to keep the Tropicana a mid-roller, mid-priced establishment, unlike most of the new high-end projects in Las Vegas.

NEWS 5/19/06   After a prolonged bidding war, Aztar was purchased by Columbia Sussex, which obtained Aztar's five casinos (including the Tropicana) for $2.75 billion, in an all-cash transaction (including $676 million of debt assumption) valued at $54 a share.

Previous Owners (Now Cancelled) Plans
New Model 2/6/08

The new model is quite a bit more refined than the earlier rendering (below).
In this model, the Tiffany Tower is still there and the Paradise Tower is removed.
Also missing is the beloved outdoor pool oasis (huh???). The towers in the new model are more
visually pleasing and complementary to each other and the Strip corner has been
completely redesigned. Columbia Sussex has not commented on the status of this project.
 

Earlier Cancelled Plan Renderings

This (below-left) is the first rendering of the proposed expansion of the Tropicana. These plans are sure to change (see above), but the overall layout of a cluster of six towers, totaling 10,244 rooms is fairly certain.

Notice the existing towers are still in the plans and dwarfed by the new towers. Also notice the (long gone) flower sculpture (below) is back on the corner (reinvented).

A Brief History of the Tropicana