The partners spent $400 million to buy the Sahara and another $415 million to turn it into a resort whose cachet was as a trendy hangout for younger gamblers and party-goers. The resort, a joint venture between Los Angeles nightlife entrepreneur Sam Nazarian and San Francisco-based real estate investors Stockbridge Capital Partners, opened to acclaim three years ago at the site of the old Sahara Hotel Casino. Meruelo Group, which owns Reno’s Grand Sierra Resort and several English- and Spanish-language TV and radio stations in California, also plans to use its media assets to promote the SLS. “We will be using the SLS name for another year and will evaluate our options with the brand moving forward,” a spokesman for Meruelo’s Reno-based Meruelo Group said. Other changes include a new management team and possibly a name change. The new owner of the SLS Las Vegas has promised to invest $100 million to turn the struggling casino hotel’s fortunes around.Īlex Meruelo, whose 2017 purchase of the North Strip resort was approved on March 22 by the Nevada Gaming Commission, will use the money over the next couple of years to upgrade hotel rooms, redesign the pool, brighten the casino floor and refresh the slot machine offering improvements he said “will make a dramatic impact”.

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