Virgin Hotels to rebrand Hard Rock

Virgin Hotels and other investors have acquired the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas and will reflag the property in the fall of 2019 after guest rooms, restaurants and other public spaces undergo renovations.

As with its Chicago hotel, the Virgin Hotels property will feature guest "chambers," in which rooms are divided by a sliding door into one section for sleeping and the other section that includes the bathroom and a mirror-and-vanity setup.

In all, the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas will have 1,504 chambers and suites as well as a 60,000-square-foot casino and multiple pools.

The hotel's lounges and restaurants will include a Commons Club, which in Chicago is a restaurant "study" during the day and a nightclub after hours.

Virgin Hotels, along with Juniper Capital Partners and Fengate Real Estate Investments, acquired the Hard Rock from Brookfield. Virgin said "hundreds of millions" of dollars will be spent on upgrades.

The hotel opened on Paradise Road about a mile east of the Las Vegas Strip in 1995 with Pamela Anderson, Tommy Lee, Jack Nicholson and George Clooney in attendance and Weezer, Duran Duran, Melissa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow, B.B. King, Billy Idol and Seal playing musical sets. The hotel, which underwent some renovations in 2016, will remain open and will continue to operate under the Hard Rock brand until the conversion is complete.

Virgin Hotels' only property opened in Chicago in early 2015. The company is adding a hotel in San Francisco later this year. Along with the Las Vegas reflagging, Virgin Hotels will add properties in Dallas and Nashville next year.