Golden Nugget Lake Tahoe, formerly Hard Rock Hotel, set for major renovation

The 500-room Golden Nugget Lake Tahoe hotel-casino is set for a major upgrade.

"We're going to touch basically every square foot of the property," Jason Sides, general manager of the hotel-casino, told regulators during the Nevada Gaming Control Board meeting last week.

In March 2023, Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta, owner of two other Golden Nugget casinos in Nevada and the Houston Rockets NBA team, announced the acquisition of the property, formerly known as the Hard Rock Hotel, through his company Fertitta Entertainment Inc. from Paragon Gaming. The purchase price was not disclosed for the all-cash deal.

Fertitta received approval for the acquisition in August from the Nevada Gaming Control Board. He had comprehensive renovation plans for the property that he intended to rebrand as the Golden Nugget Lake Tahoe.

The Control Board approved a financing plan on Wednesday that involved a loan from Deutsche Bank to repay Fertitta's companies for the initial cash purchase of the property last August.

The Stateline property near the California border at 50 Highway 50 debuted as the Sahara Tahoe hotel-casino in 1965, changing labels two other times before the rebranding in 2015 to Hard Rock Hotel.

What's planned at the Golden Nugget Tahoe?

The planned renovation is property-wide, according to Sides. One of the hotel's two towers is closed during renovations scheduled to be completed between the end of 2025 and early 2026.

According to the property's website , two new restaurants are planned, Mastro's Steak House and Saltgrass Steak House, both part of Fertitta's portfolio under his Landry's label.

Sides told regulators that Saltgrass would open in September.

Cost estimates for the project at the 539-room property with over 25,000 square feet of gaming space were not disclosed during the meeting.

Sides was positive on the current traffic coming into the casino this year during the meeting.

"You know, the shoulder seasons this spring and fall, this past fall were really slow, but we've seen the last few weeks of really, really nice surge of business and a lot of bodies up there," Sides said. "So that's good to see."

This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: Golden Nugget Lake Tahoe, formerly Hard Rock Hotel, set for major renovation