The Linq Las Vegas Hotel and High Roller Ferris Wheel are easy to spot when viewing the strip. The Linq Hotel was briefly called The Quad following the acquisition of the property formerly called the Imperial Palace. The property was purchased by Harrah’s Entertainment, which then changed its name to Caesars Entertainment in November of 2010. The change in company name was intended to capitalize on the larger international name recognition that the Caesars name commanded. The Imperial Palace had been best known for it’s famous auto collection located on the 5th floor of the hotel parking garage. I remember visiting this car collection back in the 1980’s, but had since forgotten about it among the massive expansion of the Las Vegas strip over the past two decades.
Conversion to The Linq Las Vegas Hotel and High Roller
In July 2014, Caesars officially announced that the Quad would again be rebranded as The Linq Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. This was after the completion of a $223 million renovation of the hotel property. The name change aligned to hotel to match the adjacent shopping strip and High Roller observation wheel. The High Roller was officially announced in August of 2011 as the centerpiece of Caesars $550 million Linq shopping plaza. Currently the world’s tallest ferris wheel, it comes in at 520 feet, 9 feet taller than the Singapore Flyer. There are 28 passenger capsules mounted on the wheel, each accommodating up to 40 passengers per cabin. The wheel is illuminated at night by a 2,000 LED lighting system displaying multiple colors moving around the rim.
Even with the improvement of the Las Vegas economy over the last few years, the casino operating unit of Caesars Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January of 2015. This was brought on primarily by the leveraged buyout of Harrah’s by TPG Capital and Apollo Global Management in 2006 that left the new owners with a total debt of $25 billion.
image from www.caesars.com