Harrah's management team from the Imperial Palace Hotel & Casino will run the day-to-day operations, which began yesterday. Ed Crispell, vice president and general manager of the Imperial Palace, says his team will focus on "renewing and improving relationships with guests and establishing new long-lasting associations" and build on the services needed at a "smaller hotel."

As for the property, it totals 197 guest rooms. Each comes with a 42-inch plasma TV. A new restaurant, the Steakhouse at Bill's, opens March 9. Other amenities include: The 24-hour Victorian Room, which offers reasonably-prices breakfast, lunch and dinner; and Drai's restaurant and nightclub, which will remain open through March, when it will switch to an after-hours nightclub.

As reported earlier on GlobeSt.com, the ownership shift came about in a tax-deferred exchange, in which Boyd Gaming Corp. traded its ownership of the hotel for 24 contiguous acres of Las Vegas Strip property.

The 24 acres will bring Boyd's holdings to 87 contiguous acres in the center of the north corridor of the Las Vegas Strip. According to company officials, "the additional land allowed us to modify the site layout of Echelon Place. These modifications increased the overall size of the project to 65 acres."

In all, Echelon Place will include 5,000 rooms in five hotels. Other numbers to report include: 140,000 sf of casino space; 4,000-seat and 1,500-seat theaters, operated by AEG Live; a 300,000-sf retail promenade; 750,000 sf of meeting and convention space; and 9,000 parking spaces.

Instant Insights /

Vegas Casino Ownership Flips To Harrrah's

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