• Grand Casino Luzern Wikipedia
• Grand Casino Luzern Wikipedia

Stakelogic, the developer of innovative and entertaining online slot games, has put pen to paper on a deal to integrate its full suite of classic slots and modern video slots with Switzerland’s number one online casino, mycasino.ch by Grand Casino Luzern. Grand Hotel Europe is a 4-star venue situated at about 0.4 miles distance from Grand Casino Luzern. The accommodation was opened in 1875, renovated in 2010 and is housed in a 5-storey building. It offers Wi-Fi in the rooms and features 24-hour front desk assistance, room service and shopping service.

Harrah's Gulf Coast is a casino and hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi, owned by Vici Properties and operated by Caesars Entertainment.

This facility replaces the former Grand Casino Biloxi, which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. At the time, the casino offered a 106,000-square-foot (9,800 m²) casino, two hotels with 975 rooms, and a 42,000-square-foot (3,900 m²) convention center.

Currently, the casino features around 800 slot machines and 35 table games.^[2]

History[edit]

Grand Casino Luzern Wikipedia

Prior to 2005 this casino was a Grand Casinos and Park Place Entertainment property. After the ownership change to Harrah's Entertainment it was announced that this casino was being converted to the Horseshoe brand. But these plans were put on hold when Biloxi and the Gulf Coast were hit by Hurricane Katrina. The storm destroyed the barge on which the casino floor was located; the storm surge swept the barge from the shoreline all the way across Beach Boulevard, nearly 500 feet (150 m) inward. On May 21, 2006, demolition crews imploded the beach-side hotel structure, leaving Harrah's with a clean slate for rebuilding.

After Katrina, the company announced that they will be re-opening the facility during Summer 2006, with a 35,000 sq ft (3,300 m²) casino, a spa, and other amenities, but the facilities south of Highway 90 would take several years to complete. On August 17, 2006, the first phase of the rebuilding opened with a 495-room hotel and a new land-based casino.

The long-term plan for this property had been to construct what Harrah's (now renamed back to Caesars) called 'a destination resort.' Part of the expansion plans revolved around Caesars' purchase of the 18 acres (73,000 m²) that comprised the neighboring Casino Magic property. In May 2007, Harrah's announced the Margaritaville Casino and Resort would be built on the site.^[3]

However, construction of that expansion ceased in 2008 due to economic concerns, and in January 2011, Caesars officials announced the termination of the agreement with Jimmy Buffett and his Margaritaville brand. A new Margaritaville Casino and Restaurant, not affiliated with Caesars Entertainment, was to be constructed at a different location in Biloxi.^[4]

In October 2017, ownership of the property was transferred to Vici Properties as part of a corporate spin-off, and it was leased back to Caesars Entertainment.^[5][6]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'Casino provides posh apartments for guests'. Press-Register. Mobile, AL. January 18, 1994 – via NewsBank.
2. ^'Biloxi Slots - Best Slot Machines in Biloxi'. Harrah's Gulf Coast.
3. ^'Harrah's Entertainment and Jimmy Buffett Unveil Plans for New Margaritaville Casino and Resort in Biloxi' (Press release). Harrah's Entertainment. 2007-05-17. Archived from the original on 2005-09-24.
4. ^'New Margaritaville in the works'Archived 2011-01-14 at the Wayback Machine, Sun Herald, January 13, 2011
5. ^'Vici Properties Inc., completes spin-off from Caesars Entertainment Operating Company' (Press release). Vici Properties. October 6, 2017 – via NewsBank.
6. ^Form 424B4: Prospectus (Report). Vici Properties. February 2, 2018. pp. F-54 – via EDGAR.

External links[edit]

Coordinates: 30°23′35″N88°51′57″W / 30.393015°N 88.865866°W

The Mandarin Oriental Palace, Luzern is a grand hotel of the Belle Époque, located on the north shore of the lake on 'National Quai' ('Nationalquai') in Lucerne, Switzerland. It was built as the Hotel Palace Luzern between 1904 and 1906, and is officially designated as a cultural asset of national importance (Conservation Grade B).^[1]

History[edit]

In 1903 Franz Josef Bucher, a farmer's son who by this time had become well established as a hotel pioneer-entrepreneur, purchased a 3,285 square metre plot of land at one end of the 'National Quai' ('Nationalquai') in Lucerne^[2] for a price of 880,000 Swiss francs.^[3] The price equated to 270 Swiss Francs square metre which at that time was 'sensationally' expensive for a 3,000 square metre building plot.^[2] Construction began in July 1904, using plans provided by the Heinrich Meili-Wapf architectural business, and less than two years later, on 7 May 1906, The Hotel Palace Luzern opened.^[4] Building costs had amounted to a 'sensational' four million Swiss francs.^[3] All the south-facing rooms with a lake view, as well as all the east-facing rooms, came with an en suite bathroom, which was considered the height of luxury.^[3] The Palace Luzern was also unusually large, with a total of 120 private bathrooms shared between 350 beds.^[2] That made it substantially larger than the city's existing grand hotels: The National had 79 private bathrooms shared between 450 beds, while the Schweizerhof made do with only 70 private bathrooms shared between 400 beds.^[2] The Palace Luzern was considered one of the most elegant hotels in the world.^[5]

Bookings during the first summer season were strong, apparently justifying the massive investment. However, Bucher's determination to make the Luzern Palace the city's number one hotel came with a considerable additional cost which he may not have anticipated, in the form of the envy of Lucerne's existing top hoteliers.^[2] Wealthy tourists staying in Luzern as part of a tour would frequently ask the reception staff to book their next hotels, and the competitor hoteliers in Luzern reacted with an effective bookings boycott of Bucher's other hotels in city destinations such as Lugano, Milan, Genoa and Rome.^[2]

After the outbreak of the First World War the hotel had to be closed, but business resumed following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles,^[6] and business boomed through most of the 1920s.^[3] At the end of the decade bookings nevertheless dropped off in the aftermath of theWall Street Crash, and debt financing accordingly became more burdensome for the business. By the time the Second World War broke out in 1939 the Luzern Palace was the only significant hotel still held in Franz Josef Bucher's once extensive 'Schweizerische Hotelgesellschaft AG' hotels portfolio.^[3] During the Second World War the hotel became a medical centre: it was also used as a storage location for essential basic supplies.^[6] After a two-year renovation programme costing 1.5 Million Swiss francs the hotel reopened in 1946, returned to its former luxury.^[6]

Grand Casino Luzern Wikipedia

Since the 1970s the hotel has undergone a succession of changes and upgrades, and adapted for year-round operation. During the winter of 1993/94 the top two floors were rebuilt at a cost of 15 Million Swiss francs, yielding an additional 48 rooms and suites. In October 1997 the Palace Luzern, by now under the control of General Director Jürg Reinshagen and his brother Ernst was taken over by the hotel specialists Victoria-Jungfrau Collection AG, owners of the Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa in Interlaken. By this time the two five star hotels had already been collaborating closely for some years and the take-over was reportedly a 'friendly' one.^[7]

In 2011, following the currency realignments triggered by the world economic crisis of 2007/09, Swiss hotels came under financial pressure, in common with other export dependent labour-intensive sectors, and in 2011 the owners sold the Hotel Palace Luzern building to 'CS Funds AG', an investment fund belonging to Credit Suisse (bank), in a 'sale and leaseback' deal.^[8] In October 2015 it became known that the bank was looking to sell the building on.^[9] The hotel closed for renovations in 2019 and will reopen in 2020 as Mandarin Oriental Palace, Luzern.^[10]

References[edit]

1. ^Kanton Luzern, KGS-Inventar, Provisorische Liste der B-Objekte (PDF)^{[dead link]}, Inventarauszug mit Stand vom 1. März 2014 des Fachbereichs Kulturgüterschutz im Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz (BABS)Archived 2015-10-21 at the Wayback Machine
2. ^ ^abcdefSilvia Pfenniger (8 May 2006). 'Hotellerie: König der Berge: Der Deal um das Berner «Bellevue Palace» zeigt einmal mehr: Man setzt wieder auf renovierte Luxuspaläste, wie sie Wirtschaftspionier Franz Josef Bucher um 1900 für adelige und neureiche Gäste baute'. Schweizer Wirtschaftsnetz (Das Schweizer Wirtschaftsmagazin, Bilanz). Axel Springer Schweiz AG, Zürich. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
3. ^ ^abcdeIna Bauspiess iA 'Media folder'. 'Kein Stillstand im Palasthotel am Vierwaldstättersee'(PDF). There is also an English language version of this source which gives the purchase price of the site as 'nearly 900,000 Swiss francs', implying a lesser level of precision for English language readers than for German language readers, who are informed that the price was '880.000 Schweizer Franken'!. Palace Hotel Luzern AG. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
4. ^Ina Bauspiess iA 'Media folder'. 'The Palace Luzern - Hotel with a history'(PDF). Palace Hotel Luzern AG. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
5. ^Christoph Zurfluh (2013). 'Es lebe das Grand Hotel'(PDF). next floor: Das Magazin für die Kunden der Schindler Aufzüge AG. Schindler Aufzüge AG, Marketing & Kommunikation, Ebikon. p. 5. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
6. ^ ^abc'Palace Luzern'. H.A. Bichsel SA, Basel (Raids des Grands Palaces). Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
7. ^''Eine schweizerische Lösung gesucht': Interlakner Victoria-Jungfrau übernimmt das Luzerner Luxushotel Palace'. Die Grand Hotel Victoria-Jungfrau AG in Interlaken will auf 1. Oktober 1997 das Luzerner Fünfsternhotel Palace übernehmen: Der Zusammenschluss – über die Höhe des Übernahmepreises wurde keine Auskunft gegeben – soll laut einem gestern verbreiteten Communiqué ein beträchtliches Synergiepotential auslösen. Ein Stellenabbau sei nicht geplant. Berner Oberland News. 20 March 1997. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
8. ^Hotels müssen einzigartig sein. In: Neue Luzerner Zeitung, 14 October 2015, p. 11
9. ^'Luzerner Luxus-Hotel steht vor Verkauf: LUZERN ⋅ Das 'Palace' zählt zu den renommiertesten Hotels der Stadt. Die Besitzerin des Hauses, die Grossbank CS, will sich aber von der Immobilie trennen. Das sorgt für Ärger'. Neue Luzerner Zeitung {online}. 3 October 2015. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
10. ^https://www.hospitalitynet.org/announcement/41003870/mandarin-oriental-palace-luzern.html