Westin Causarina Las Vegas Hotel, Casino & Spa
| The Westin Las Vegas Hotel & Spa | |
|---|---|
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| General information | |
| Location | Paradise, Nevada |
| Address | 160 East Flamingo Road |
| Opening | July 1, 1977 original, November 6, 2003 Westin |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 826 |
| Number of suites | 13 |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
The Westin Las Vegas Hotel & Spa is a resort near the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The Westin is managed by Pyramid Hotel Group, under franchise from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, owner of Westin Hotels. It is noteworthy for being one of the first Las Vegas resorts to prohibit smoking in almost all parts of the property.
The property was originally opened on July 1, 1977 as the Maxim Hotel and Casino. Though smaller than typical Vegas resorts even before today's megaresort era, the Maxim had a popular following because of its attention to personal service. It thrived during the 1980s, but went into decline as flashier, larger resorts opened on the nearby Strip.
The Maxim was the site of the shooting death of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996. Shakur was a passenger in a BMW that was driving in front of the casino, when a man in a Cadillac pulled up and opened fire, gravely wounding the rap star. He died a week later from his injuries.
In 1999, the casino was closed in a dispute between the casino operator and hotel owners. The hotel itself remained open without gaming until closing entirely in 2001.
Columbia Sussex bought the former Maxim for $38 million then spent an additional $90 million on the remodel. They reopened the hotel as The Westin Casuarina on November 6, 2003, using the name of their successful resort in the Cayman Islands. The Westin Casuarina marked the first Westin resort nationwide to feature a casino and was the first Westin in Nevada.
In November 2010, lenders CWCapital Asset Management LLC filed for foreclosure on The Westin Casuarina, after Columbia Sussex stopped making payments on the property's $160 million mortgage in April. The hotel's general manager said in October 2011 that Columbia Sussex would not fight the foreclosure, and that the hotel was overleveraged due to property values declining in the recession. Lenders asked a court to appoint Pyramid Hotel Group as receiver to operate the resort. Pyramid leased the property's casino to 777 Gaming, a company that had operated several rural casinos and a slot route, for four years beginning in May 2012.
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