Harveys Lake Tahoe
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| Number of rooms | 740 | |
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| Theme | ||
| Gaming space | 87,500 ft² | |
| Permanent show(s) | ||
| Signature attraction(s) | ||
| Notable restaurant(s) | Sage Room Steak House Cabo Wabo Cantina Hard Rock Cafe |
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| Owner | Harrah's Entertainment | |
| Date opened | 1944 | |
| Casino type | Land | |
| Major renovation(s) | 1961, 12-story tower 1987 19-story tower |
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| Previous name(s) | Harvey’s Wagon Wheel Saloon & Gaming Hall Harveys Wagon Wheel | |
| Casino website | Harveys Lake Tahoe | |
Harveys Lake Tahoe is a resort located in Stateline, Nevada. The hotel has 740 rooms and suites, as well as six restaurants, and a casino with 87,500 square feet of space. The hotel also has a wedding chapel, pool, convention center, and a full-service health club.
[edit] History
Originally opened in 1944 and operated by Sacramento meat wholesaler Harvey Gross and his wife Llewellyn. They opened the first high rise tower, and 12-story 197 room hotel in 1961. The hotel suffered an explosion from a 1,200 pound bomb on August 27, 1980 that left a crater three stories deep when detonated by the FBI. (The area around the hotel had been cleared, and no one was injured.) The bomb was placed by John Birges, a heavily in-debt Fresno landscaper who had lost at least $750,000 at Harveys and was hoping to extort 3 million from the bomb threat. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 1996 from liver cancer.
In 1983 Harvey Gross died at the age of 78, however the company continued to operate under family management. In 1985 Harveys sold the Harveys Inn, northeast of Stateline, which reopened as the Lakeside Inn. The 18-story $74 million dollar glass "Lake Tower" opened in 1987, the same year the trademark "Wagon Wheel" was replaced on the 12-story tower with the current Harveys brand. In early 1992, Harveys entered a bidding war with Hilton Hotels Corporation over the right to buy Bally’s Reno, which opened in 1978 as the MGM Grand Reno, now the Grand Sierra Resort.
Harveys announced an agreement on a $70 million deal, only to see Hilton up the ante to $73 million and assumption of Bally's debt. Several weeks later, after considering even higher bids, a federal bankruptcy court settled the matter by approving Hilton’s final $83 million offer. After going public on Feb. 15, 1994 Harveys began new projects including a joint venture with Hard Rock America for an $80 million casino in Las Vegas, which it later sold it's interest in 1997, and then a casino resort in Central City, Colorado, later in 1994, followed by a riverboat casino-convention center in Council Bluffs, Iowa in early 1996. In 1999 Colony Capital LLC bought a controlling interest in Harveys Casino Resorts. Harveys announced on April 24, 2001 that it would be acquired by Harrah's Entertainment, for $625 million.
[edit] References and external links
- Harveys Lake Tahoe site
- Tahoe Daily Tribune
- Reno Gazette Journal Story(25th anniversary of Harveys bombing)
| Lake Tahoe Casinos | ||||||
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| Harrah's Entertainment | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Annual Revenue: $7.11 billion USD Employees: 85,000 Stock Symbol: NYSE: HET Website: www.harrahs.com |
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