Las Vegas Sun NewsImperial Palace getting new name: The Quad Resort & Casino
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Photo Courtesy of Caesars Entertainment
A rendering of The Quad.
Monday
17 September 2012
2:12 p.m.
Updated
17 Sept. 2012 4:05 p.m.
Map of The Quad
The Quad
3535 Las Vegas Blvd South, Las Vegas
After 33 years as the Imperial Palace, the Las Vegas Strip resort will become the Quad Resort & Casino, Caesars Entertainment announced today.
The Quad will be the gateway to Caesars’ new Linq retail and entertainment district.
As part of the resort’s transformation, improvements will be made in phases to the exterior façade, porte cochere, front desk, bell desk, hotel lobby, casino floor, retail promenade and dining levels. The resort will remain open during construction that will continue through next year.
After December, the property will cease to be known as the Imperial Palace. But a new sign isn’t set to go up until a new facade is completed, near the end of 2013.
“As we renovate and modernize the property, it was only appropriate that we also update the name,” Rick Mazer, the resort’s president, said in a statement.
The Quad will feature contemporary designs and fixtures, a dual-sided lobby bar, a Starbucks and new retail and dining areas.
The Friedmutter Group, whose work includes the Cosmopolitan and Red Rock Resort, will oversee the interior design. Klai Juba Architects, who worked on Mandalay Bay and the Eastside Cannery, will handle exterior and structural improvements.
The Quad will retain the current number of 2,543 rooms and suites, along with many other features of the Palace. Those include the Shangri-la Pool, Embers steakhouse, Burger Palace, Betty’s Diner, Genseng 3, Quesadilla and the Emperor’s Buffet.
The changes also will include adding 15,000 square feet of gaming space. The casino floor is now about 50,000 square feet.
New entrances also will be added. The front door of the Quad will move from the Strip to the north side of the building, with access from Koval Lane or the Harrah’s tunnel. A pedestrian walkway will connect Harrah’s Carnaval Court to the south side of the Quad, eventually leading pedestrians to the Linq and the High Roller Observation Wheel. The $550 million Linq complex also is scheduled to open next year.
Hotel guests will begin to see the first phases of renovations completed by November, Caesars officials said.
A new check-in and bell desk already are finished, and a new valet area is expected to be in place in the coming weeks.
Frank Marino’s "Divas Las Vegas" show, the Imperial Palace’s auto collections and the Hash House A Go Go restaurant will continue to operate during the renovations.
This isn’t the first name change for the property.
It was the Flamingo Capri when Ralph Engelstad purchased the decaying property in 1971. He added buildings and a casino and reopened it a year later. In 1979, he renamed it the Imperial Palace.
Engelstad died in 2002.
Caesars Entertainment, then operating as Harrah’s, bought the casino for $370 million in 2005.
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I don't like the new name at all
What about the old car collection? I hope that remains as part of the "QUAD".
Really? The Quad? LMAO
honest opinion: it is horrible. I have worked at the IP in the past and that being said, I was excited when I heard it was going to be re-branded, but "the Quad"? really? let me start by saying the big Q in the center on it's own looks like a "quality suites" or something of that nature. The name "the Quad" really does take me back to college barracks or classrooms in high school even. the name makes no sense being that the project directly to the south is "the linq". Next are they going to rename Harrahs to the North or the Flamingo to the south? how does "the quad" even make sense? when I think of quad, I think of four.. I do not see four represented? Wkipedia defines Quad as: a dormitory room or suite housing four residents. I am hoping this is a hoax, because if not the joke wll be on you Caesars, as the name does not sound "hip or trendy" it sounds like a college frat house, and from the rendering, that does not seem like the direction you are trying to go.
I think I speak for most. New name and make up on an old ugly pig. Should have been torn down completely. Rooms are horrible. Like the singing dealers and the Karaoke when they had it.
... Had-A-great production show, when they-1st.-opened! I was Entertainment Editor at "The Valley Times" in NLV & "Billboard Magazine" as a full-time correspondent! Good to see Bflo., NY native Frank Marino still has a Vegas show, "Las Vegas Divas," at thee Imperial Palace! Loved his production at the Riviera Hotel/Casino.
thats the worst name...it has no meaning, no flow, nothing....."where did you stay when you went to vegas?" I stayed at the Quad....so you stayed at unlv? i didnt know they rented out the unused dorm rooms? Is that kinda like staying in a Hostel? yeah, that will wow your friends,,,"im staying at the Quad, sign me up, enroll me now, im on my way...cant wait to get to the "Quad" the Q envokes all kinds of luxury...yes sir......
You've got to be kidding ??? Quad ??? that is so wrong in many ways!!! Imperial Palace was so cool, and we loved staying there and picked over many others not for the name but it was a cool place with blue lighting and great poolside rooms.The list goes on why we stay there.
A big reason not to use that name is that it is a slur referring to a paralyzed/handicapped person..that alone makes it a really poor choice of a name.
Hopefully they can be creative if they need to re-name it at all.
thanks for listening..
That might be the worst name I have ever heard. How stupid are the people that came up with this?
Welcome to the new Las Vegas. Creativity and ingenuity are not allowed in this corporate culture.
No matter what you may think, You will like it here, we have surveys to prove it.
Its a shame they just don't absorb it into either the Flaimingo or Harrah's. If this was still the days when owners were in charge it would have been bought by one of those neighbors and absorbed as casinos on fremont street became absorbed by thier more successful neighbors. It must have something to do with being able to divest it in bankruptcy down the road and making it availiable for aquisition in court by insiders.
The Quad?
What is this, a college dorm?
Who is naming this place, frat boys?
It could be shorten to the "Q", but it has prices and amenities that could be the same as the "Y".
In the 90's when Luxor, MGM and Treasure Island opened up - the IP could be counted on for having great looking cocktail waitresses in short skirts, a sports book taking bets on Thunder hockey games to CFL games with Vegas' local team with a real drive thru sports book, a place where if you were not there to party - they would tell you to go to another hotel. It did very well with Ralph running the hotel. He would be rolling over to see this name being put on the IP. The imagination of Harrahs has dumbed down the Rio, made Ballys a blah resort and took away the stengths of the old IP that made it great. Sports Book used to be one of the places to go - now it is blah. Harrahs has done so little when it comes to being cutting edge, they make you long for the days when the IP and Rio had personality with aspects that made them unique and worth going to visit. Really too bad, Phil Ruffin would have made a killing with the IP.
They must hire only geniuses at Caesars Entertainment. Naming the IP the "Quad" is proof. NOT! Could they have wasted their time, money & effort on coming up with a more BLAH monicker? BTW, when I drove a cab and fares would pile in and say, "Take us to the Imperial Palace," I would ask, "You mean the place where the owner holds birthday parties for Hitler?" Without fail, they were shocked and, without fail, they changed destinations. Had I the power, I would have personally bankrupted the SOB! I had no love for Englestad, the scumbag!
The Imperial Palace definitely needs a face lift. It is painful to get into and out of and isn't up to par with the rest of its neighbors. It has gotten a reputation of being a low-rent place, which is fine I guess if you are looking for a cheap room.
I don't know where Caesars Entertainment is going to get the money to renovate this place -- they are in debt up to their eyeballs, and the new name doesn't inspire me to visit, but it certainly can't hurt in making this hotel a destination again. Hopefully they'll rethink their branding decision.
Good luck to them.
I'm not in love with the new name, but hope that with a serious facelift the Imperial Palace will be brought back to it's once thriving stamina. I went there once ...it was tired and old. The imperial palace, their luau and other things about it are great. It's too bad they have to give it a rather unimpressive name.
I suggest reviving, instead of renaming.
Let's get a game of hackysack going!
I can see by the comments that I was not alone when I was struck by the oddity of the name Quad. I've come to realize that odd names are sometimes brilliant (Circus Circus for example) so I will reserve final judgement on how the brand develops. But, with that said, I'm laughing as I write this because while I'm all for cutting edge out of the box thinking, this name has a lot to overcome. One way of judging will be how long it will require for people to get away from saying - "Quad, the old IP". This ones a hoot! The HR tag line for associates is rumored to be the Quad Squad but that has not been confirmed.
When friends ask where you stayed on your trip to Las Vegas, 'I stayed at the Quad' just doesn't have the same ring as 'I stayed at the Bellagio.'