Linq project developments
Viewing video requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player
digg
FacebookCaesars unveils details of Linq project, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011.
Imperial Palace — not the Strip property, but the brand name — is losing its place on Las Vegas Boulevard as Caesars Entertainment launches a significant makeover of the mid-Strip with its $500 million Linq dining and entertainment complex.
Caesars officials have not come up with a replacement name or discussed why it was dropping the Imperial Palace name, which it has leased.
Caesars has leased the Imperial Palace name since acquiring the Asian-themed property in 2005. Imperial Palace was opened in 1979 by independent businessman Ralph Engelstad, who died in 2002.
Construction of the Linq, which will include up to 40 restaurants and bars as well as a 550-foot high observation wheel called High Roller, will begin next month, starting with refurbishing the exteriors of Caesars’ Imperial Palace and O’Sheas casinos. The entrance to the nearby Flamingo also will get a makeover.
The project is expected to be open by June 2013.
The O’Sheas brand won’t go away but will instead be incorporated into the Linq complex, which will connect to the Imperial Palace building.
The entertainment district, an outdoor streetscape similar in style and concept to The Grove in Los Angeles, will take shape along a corridor between O’Sheas and Flamingo on the east side of Las Vegas Boulevard.
Caesars executive Rick Mazer said the company hopes to minimize any disruption caused by construction. Mazer is president of the company’s Harrah’s Las Vegas, Flamingo, Imperial Palace, Bill’s and O’Sheas.
The Linq is expected to employ 3,000 construction workers and 15,000 permanent employees.