Grand Sierra Resort - History

History

In 1975, officials from the Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Company began to scout out Reno locations for their proposed high rise hotel-casino they wanted to model after their very high profile Las Vegas casino, the MGM Grand. Following a deal with and approval from the City Council, MGM purchased land at the intersection of Mill and 2nd Streets, at that time a gravel pit. The Summer of 1976 saw construction begin on the 26 story, 1,015 room property that would then be one of the largest in the world. After two years of intense building, the building opened with fanfare, fashion and media attention on May 3, 1978. Rooms at the time were $35 for a standard to $250 for a suite. At its opening, the MGM Grand Reno featured a 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2) casino floor, the world's largest 1800 seat Ziegfeld Theater, various ballrooms, seven restaurants, nineteen bars, two movie theaters, a bowling alley, a jai alai fronton, and an RV park.

In the Summer of 1981, MGM opened an expansion of the hotel with a 26 story wing plus an additional 900 rooms, making a total of 2,001 rooms and suites. Three years later in November 1984 MGM revealed plans to expand the Reno hotel further: a $60 million 26 story wing with another 954 rooms, which never materialized. After fights and issues with the City Council, the expansion was later approved on September 23, 1985 amid rumors the MGM would be sold. Less than five months later on November 16, 1985 those rumors proved to be true with Bally Manufacturing announcing that it would acquire the Reno and Las Vegas MGM's for $440 million, further questioning the newly approved expansion for Reno. The increased purchase price transaction was completed in April 1986 and MGM Grand Reno became Bally's Reno, the price to purchase the MGM assets came out being more than $550 million. The expansion for Reno was delayed indefinitely leaving the current structure with 2,001 rooms. On April 18, 1989, Bally's shut down the popular Donn Arden production "Hello Hollywood Hello" that was created for the MGM Reno. It closed after 11 years and performances in front of more than 7,000,000 people. It remains still the longest running production show to ever play in Reno. In 1990 Wall-Street began to tout financial problems with Bally Manufacturing; but in July 1990, they refute the claim and announce they will continue to operate the hotel-casinos. Three months later in October 1990, it became known that Bally was struggling with $1.8 billion in debts and announced a plan to restructure and reorganize to keep Bally's Reno operating. After two years of sluggish operations, on February 27, 1992 Bally Manufacturing, parent company of Bally's, filed for bankruptcy. The next month, in March 1992, the hotel was placed on the market. Quickly, bidding began between Hilton Hotels Inc and Harveys Casino. The bidding went on until June 1992 when Hilton put an end to the war, bidding $83 million. The transaction took a few weeks to complete. On July 31, 1992 Bally's Reno became officially the Reno Hilton.

Free of financial problems and immediately after the sale, Hilton began investing $86,000,000 worth of renovations in 1992 and 1993 to transform completely the interior and exterior of the hotel and direct the theme towards a more Western image. In December 1993, following the renovations, Hilton confirmed that it was looking into building a 1,000 room addition. The Reno Hilton's ownership was a series of managers and company names; it was Hilton Hotel Inc. from 1992-1999 when Hilton spun off its gaming operations into a separate company called Park Place Entertainment. Then in 2003, following a 2001 purchase of Caesars World, Park Place changed its name to Caesars Entertainment, with Hilton still holding an affiliation with the company. Around this time, the Reno Hilton was again being renovated. In May 2005, it became known that Caesars Entertainment, which was pending in a merger with Harrah's Entertainment, had to disassociate all hotels under the Hilton brand as Hilton had removed itself from the company and did not want to become part of the merger. Consequently, the property was placed on the market and quickly picked up by a group of investors known as the Grand Sierra Resort Corp. The purchase price was $151,000,000.