History
Prior to 1972, the present-day Atlantis was home to the Golden Road Motor Inn, a 142-room motel. In that year, the property was purchased by the Farahi family. The purchase included with it a restaurant on the site known as the Copper Kettle. Shortly after the purchase, a franchise agreement was signed with Travelodge.
In the late 1980s, a deal was struck with Choice Hotels. As a result, the hotel was renamed Quality Inn, and the restaurant became the Purple Parrot. In 1991, the hotel was renamed again; under the Choice Hotels lease agreement, they branded the hotel as a Clarion and through the Farahis, constructed a 12-story hotel tower that opened in 1991. The Farahis pledged it would be the first of many expansions to come. Clarion Hotel-Casino Reno had a tropical theme and when the first tower was built, along came with more casino and more restaurants.
In 1993, Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc, the Farahis' corporate firm, took over financial responsibility for the Clarion. With this came a public offering on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. With the additional capital from the public offering, Clarion began its second major expansion, which included a second 18-story hotel tower with an additional 400+ rooms and more gaming space and another restaurant, a buffet.
Desiring to have an independent identity, in 1996 the Monarch Casino & Resort Inc. Board of Directors made the decision to rename the resort the Atlantis. With the new name came plans for yet another expansion. The phase III expansion included a third 27-story hotel tower with close to 650 rooms, an expanded casino, three new restaurants, and the addition of a 40,000 sq ft (3,700 m2) entertainment facility. Additionally, the expansion plans called for a "sky terrace" over Virginia Street that would be anchored by two Greco-Roman columns topped with flame shows that would be hourly. Ground was broken in June 1998, with completion just over a year later, in July 1999. The Sky Terrace opened first before the new hotel tower and casino expansion. The latest expansion cost $60 million to construct, the most expensive and largest to date in the resort's history, and it redefined the resort entirely.
Atlantis in 2002 remodeled its original tower built back in 1990 and renamed it the "Royal Dolphin Tower", its rooms furnished with mahogany accents and warm color tones. They charged extra per night for those rooms. The next tower to be built in 1994, was too remodeled in 2004 with similar furnishings and in 2005 got its own pricing distinction and name, "Atrium Tower", because of the lobby atrium behind its signature glass elevators. The "Luxury" tower rooms became known as floors 3–20 of the third most and newest of the Atlantis towers. Atlantis has two floors of exclusive VIP suites, they sit on the 26th and 27th floors of Atlantis' third tower and are not available to regular guests unless booked through a party. Atlantis is home to the region's only Concierge Tower, with a concierge lounge on the 25th floor. Atlantis kept in operation their two-story Motor Lodge rooms that was part of the original Golden Road/Travelodge/Quality Inn but closed it down on October 16, 2010 and demolished in the weeks following.
In 2003, Atlantis built a spa consisting of 3,000 sq ft (280 m2) and as a result of the spa addition, "spa" was tacked on under Resort-Casino below Atlantis' signature logo. That spa was expanded to 30,000 sq ft (2,800 m2) during the most recent expansion that was completed in January 2009. To match their new "Spa Atlantis" the hotel sequestered a set of rooms on the 3rd floor to be designated as "Spa Rooms" with yoga mats, soothing color tones, yoga channel and specialized bath products.
To date, all rooms in Atlantis' Concierge and Luxury Towers have been completely remodeled; rooms in the Atrium and Dolphin towers are being updated with modern technology to match the newly remodeled Luxury/Concierge Towers.
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