After finalizing its purchase of the struggling SLS Las Vegas Hotel and Casino for an undisclosed amount in April, the Meruelo Group has now reportedly rechristened the 1,720-room property as the Sahara Las Vegas.

New owner:

According to a Thursday report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the real estate firm run by Alex Meruelo bought the venue first built in 1952 from San Francisco-headquartered investment fund Stockbridge Capital Group and has committed to spending upwards of $100 million on renovations. While this process continues, it has officially unveiled a new name that harkens back to the original identity of the once iconic enterprise, which was known as the Sahara Hotel and Casino until it adopted the SLS moniker in 2013.

Storied past:

The newspaper reported that the Las Vegas venue once hosted such celebrities as Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis and the Beatles while 55-year-old Meruelo detailed that the new name will help his management team to bring back these glory days and deliver intimate and memorable experiences.

Meruelo reportedly told the Las Vegas Review-Journal…

“We want people who stay with us to say ‘my God, what an experience’, because experience leads to memories and that’s what we want to create, memories and experiences you won’t forget. To do that, we had to find the right resort and this is the right resort. We can make a big impact here at this iconic location. Our property is just the right size to deliver the bold, yet personalized, experiences that made visitors first fall in love with Las Vegas.”

Fresh beginnings:

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Meruelo unveiled the new Sahara Las Vegas identity on Thursday evening via a special ceremony attended by some 700 guests that had featured fireworks and a drone light show. He purportedly moreover proclaimed that the Nevada venue with its Moroccan onion-dome minaret had ‘played an important role in the evolution of the destination’ and that his firm will now be responsible ‘for shaping a new narrative’ as well as ‘writing the next chapter in the city’s evolution’.