Las Vegas is getting another hotel makeover and this time the name behind the project is 64-year-old US celebrity and entrepreneur Lisa Vanderpump. The Real Beverly Hills Housewife and Vanderpump Rules reality TV star is partnering with hospitality and gambling giant Caesars Entertainment to renovate The Cromwell and turn it into what she claims will be a ” truly magical” Vanderpump Hotel, by 2026.
From vintage motel to Gamblin’ Hall and beyond
Now a 188-room “boutique” hotel opposite Caesars Palace on Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road, The Cromwell is a 46-year-old building on a site that has seen many different incarnations, including the vintage fifties “Desert Villa” motel with a cantilevered front and a neon flowering cactus sign. The motel was demolished in the late seventies to make way for what would become the Barbary Coast Hotel and, later, Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall.
It is now host to a number of businesses, lounges, and bars, including celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis’ restaurant GIADA. While the fate of those establishments has not been confirmed, more details are coming soon, and it has been reported that the building will remain open as the new Vanderpump Hotel takes shape. Once finished, it will have a transformed reception and front desk area, an all-new lounge, reimagined guest rooms and suites, and a “fresh, new feel” for the casino, according to a news release.
Prime location
Although a hotel is a new venture for Vanderpump, she is no stranger to the restaurant and nightclub sector and has been involved in the leisure industry for decades. The partnership with Caesars is not new either. The British daughter of an art agency director, alongside her business partner, Nick Alain, and her husband, Ken Todd, has already collaborated with Caesars on “three very successful restaurants”, said Sean McBurney, regional president of Caesars Entertainment, in a statement.
With an eye on the increased scale of the latest collaboration and the project’s prime real estate position, McBurney added: “Now we get to take Lisa’s vision and expertise to the next level — infusing her talent and creativity into an entire hotel at the most incredible location on the Las Vegas Strip.”
Describing her design aesthetic as combining “Sexy elegance and comfort,” Vanderpump recognised the “extraordinary opportunity to develop this iconic location into something unique, playful, and upscale.” In a statement shared with Travel + Leisure, she said: “Hospitality has always been our passion, and our mission is to create something sumptuous with a unique atmosphere.”
