Golden Nugget Lake Tahoe Begins Top-to-Bottom Renovation

The general manager of the Golden Nugget Lake Tahoe told gaming industry regulators last week that “every square foot of the property” would undergo some form of renovation during the latest redevelopment.

At a Gaming Control Board hearing in Carson City, General Manager Jason Sides said the first phase of redevelopment had begun for the 539-room hotel and 25,000-square-foot casino. One of the resort’s two towers has been taken offline so the improvements can be made, and he expects the first floor of renovated rooms to be available in October, just in time for the busiest months of the year.

“We have big plans for the property with a significant capital investment,” Sides told supervisors, but he did not provide a cost estimate for the project.

After purchasing it last year The company, founded by Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta and privately owned by Fertitta Entertainment, is now operating under its fifth name since opening in the 1960s.

Sides said a Salt Grass Steakhouse — one of dozens of restaurant brands owned by Fertitta — will open in the fall. He said Mastro’s Steak House, a high-end restaurant brand owned by Fertitta, will also be added to the property.

About the Golden Nugget websiteImages show renovated lobby and room layout.

“You’re going to see phases of other construction (throughout the year),” Sides said. “We’ve seen a nice uptick in business and a lot of bodies (in the Tahoe market) over the last couple of weeks. So that’s good to see.”

A representative for Fertitta’s company declined to comment on what was said at the hearing. The renovations are expected to be completed by 2025.

The resort has been known as Hard Rock Lake Tahoe since 2015. The Nugget is the last of four Tahoe casinos that visitors see along Highway 50 as they drive into Stateline from California. The other three Stateline resorts are Bally’s Lake Tahoe and the Caesars Entertainment-owned Harvey’s and Harrah’s.

Michael Lawton, senior economic analyst with the Control Board, said the South Tahoe market had its highest total gambling revenue in 2000, when it generated $352.6 million in gambling revenue.

Lawton said South Tahoe has seen a steep decline in gambling revenue — down nearly 31 percent from peak totals — over the past two decades because of the recession and competition from Northern California tribal casinos. Three new tribal casinos have opened in the Sacramento area in the past three years.

But there is hope that the market will recover.

South Lake Tahoe’s gambling revenue through May is up 5.6 percent compared to the first five months of 2023, according to the state commission. Last year, the Tahoe market generated more than $243.8 million in gambling revenue, down 7.5 percent from 2022 but up more than 8 percent from 2019, Nevada’s last full year of gambling revenue before the pandemic.

“We saw this as a tremendous opportunity,” Fertitta told state gambling regulators a year ago. “We’re going to take this property and completely transform it. And as we always do, we’re going to add the Golden Nugget name. We always expect it to be one of the best properties in the market.”

Investments outside the casino floors

Tahoe has also recently made investments outside of the gaming sector.

The Golden Nugget is up against $80 million Tahoe Blue Event CenterThe 132,000-square-foot facility at the corner of U.S. Highway 50 and Lake Parkway will house conferences and concerts and will serve as the 36-game home hockey arena for the ECHL’s expansion Tahoe Knight Monsters.

On the California side of Highway 50, Orlando-based Margaritaville Resorts has converted the 399-room, non-gaming Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel into Margaritaville Resort Lake Tahoe. The renovation gave the location a Key West theme at the base of the Heavenly Mountain Ski Resort and adjacent to the casinos just across the state line.

The property is Fertitta’s third Golden Nugget in Nevada, joining resorts in downtown and Laughlin. Fertitta’s company also operates Golden Nugget hotel-casinos in Atlantic City, Biloxi, Mississippi, Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Cripple Creek, Colorado.

Fertitta’s company received preliminary approval from the state’s regulatory board on Wednesday to finance part of last year’s purchase of the property. The Gaming Commission is expected to hear the case on July 25.

“Essentially, Tillman Fertitta is getting its initial investment in the project back,” said George Assad, a member of the board of trustees. “It’s a fairly simple transaction, but it’s just a lot of legal jargon.”

Fertitta announced an all-cash offer for Hard Rock Lake Tahoe in March 2023and purchased the operation from Paragon Gaming. Five months later, the deal was approved by state gaming regulators and the property was renamed Golden Nugget. The property had hundreds of music memorabilia items that were returned to Hard Rock.

The property opened in the 1960s as Sahara Tahoe. It has also been known as High Sierra Resort and Lake Tahoe Horizon.

Fertitta Entertainment also has plans to build a 2,420-room, 43-story hotel-casino on 6 acres at Harmon Avenue and the Strip, which it acquired in 2022 for $270 million. In May said it early Clark County for permission to connect the planned resort with a pedestrian bridge.

The company owns the Houston Rockets (NBA) and its Landry’s hospitality division includes a restaurant segment with approximately 520 locations and entertainment attractions.

Fertitta, a nephew of Red Rock Resorts CEO Frank Fertitta III and vice chairman Lorenzo Fertitta III, also owned a 6.1 percent stake in Wynn Resorts. since 2022 as a passive investment. He is the second largest individual shareholder in the company, after Elaine Wynn.

This story was published by The Nevada Independent on July 14 and is republished here with permission.