Tropicana limits conventions, weighs redevelopment

Wednesday, April 23, 2003 | 11:03 a.m.

The Tropicana Resort and Casino will no longer be booking business at its convention center past May 2004, a company spokesman said today.

Aztar Corp., Tropicana's parent company, has for years expressed interest in the possibility of redeveloping the property into a new megaresort that could better compete with newer and more lavish properties on the Las Vegas Strip.

The decision to halt bookings is part of a process that will involve completing a design and development plan for the redevelopment project by the end of the year, Aztar spokesman Joe Cole said.

"We're working with architects and engineers. We will not make a decision about what to do until we finish that process," Cole said.

Aztar hasn't forecasted a timeline for the new resort, should it decide to move ahead, he said.

The company could still decide to scrap the project, he added.

The Tropicana, which opened in 1957, is on about 34 acres and has more than 1,800 rooms and a 62,000-square-foot casino. Its convention center is about 100,000 square feet. The property is on one of the busiest intersections on the famed Strip, across Tropicana Avenue from the MGM Grand, across Las Vegas Boulevard from the Excalibur and across the intersection from New York-New York.

Aztar owns casinos in Atlantic City and the Midwest as well as a casino in Laughlin. The Tropicana is the company's only Las Vegas property.