Downtown Las Vegas hotel-casino El Cortez announced Tuesday the completion of a $3 million renovation that consisted of the upgrade of 47 original vintage rooms —dubbed the “Original 47” — built in 1941, the year when the National Register of Historic Places-listed venue opened its doors.
Originally used as boarding and meeting spaces when the venue opened, now the 47 rooms feature seafoam green walls with green fawn wallpaper, brass bedframes, and mid-century style furniture with marble and brass accents — a nod to Havana, Cuba, where the Mob first ventured into gambling before buying El Cortez.
“We’re proud of our history at El Cortez Hotel & Casino,” General Manager Adam Wiesberg said in a news release. “With this renovation, we’ve elevated the Original 47 rooms to meet the needs of today’s modern traveler while keeping the timeless, vintage charm our guests expect and appreciate.”
The renovations are the final piece of the hotel’s $28 million property renovation that began in 2020, notes Las Vegas Review-Journal. The property remodeled its 200-room tower, redesigned its casino floor, and revamped the high-limit room.
The casino further announced the launch of a Vegas History Hallway, in partnership with the Mob Museum. The project will feature authentic images and information plaques about the city’s history and El Cortez, which was once owned by mobsters Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Gus Greenbaum and Moe Sedway.
Of the latest partnership, the Mob Museum said in a statement: ‘The Mob Museum and The El Cortez are iconic Downtown Las Vegas institutions, are well-suited partners and have had the opportunity to work together on a number of occasions.’
‘This exhibit felt like a natural way to extend the story and the Museum’s mission to advance the public understanding of organized crime’s history and impact on American society, as the El Cortez is Las Vegas’ longest continuously operating hotel-casino, and was once owned by mobster Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel. We’re excited to have been able to assist in curating this historic photography exhibit,’ representatives of the Mob Museum concluded.
El Cortez — the only casino property in the city with a National Register of Historic Places designation — also transitioned to a 21+ property on April 1. It joins Circa, which instituted a similar policy when it opened in October 2020.
