Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Plaza Hotel & Casino loses lawsuit to stop Plaza Las Vegas

I previously wrote (link here) about the lawsuit between Tamares Group (“Tamares”) – the owner of the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Downtown Las Vegas – against the El-Ad Group, Ltd. (“El-Ad”), the owner of New York’s famed “Plaza Hotel” over the rights to the name “Plaza” for a hotel-casino in Las Vegas.

As reported today by numerous news outlets (NYTimes as well as articles here, here , here, and here), a jury ruled on Monday in favor of El-Ad and against Tamares in its lawsuit to stop El-Ad from naming its planned $5 billion mega-resort “Plaza Las Vegas.” The news reports uggest that lawyers for El-Ad were successful in arguing that the Plaza Hotel & Casino failed to secure its rights to the “Plaza” name by operating under several other names during its history including Union Plaza and Jackie Gaughan's Plaza (as I noted in my own blog post).

Now the only thing standing in the way of El-Ad's planned mega-resort is the massive downturn in the economy and the freezing of the credit market. I wouldn't be surprised if El-Ad ends up scrapping its plans to build Plaza Las Vegas due to the inability to obtain the necessary financing as well as the outlook for the Las Vegas hotel and gaming market -- which will leave our downtown jewel of Glitter Gulch once again the one and only Plaza in Las Vegas.

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