Mark Anderson

Staff Writer- Sacramento Business Journal

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The developers of the newly renovated Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Lake Tahoe will smash an ice guitar Wednesday to celebrate the opening of the 539-room property.

It is a return of a major hotel with a major name to the location, which had most recently been the downscale Horizon Casino.

After a $60 million renovation, the hotel and casino at 50 Highway 50 in Stateline, Nev., will feature renovated rooms, a 25,000-square-foot casino, a Hard Rock store, five restaurants and multiple bars.

The hotel will not have a Hard Rock Cafe in it. There is a Hard Rock Cafe at the neighboring Harvey's Lake Tahoe.

In July, the property owners, the Park family, and Las Vegas-based Warner Hospitality announced they would do a full renovation of the property, which was first opened in 1965 as Del Webb's Sahara Tahoe.

The renovated property has three main large meeting spaces with a total of more than 15,000 square feet, including Vinyl, which is an intimate music venue. Concerts scheduled for the next few weeks in Vinyl include Uncle Kraker, Skid Row, Scott Weiland and the English Beat.

New hotel rooms in Tahoe are a rare event. Any new development has been restricted around Lake Tahoe for years. The number of hotel rooms or lodging units in the area is controlled by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Hotels are capped at the number of lodging units that existed in 1987.

By an act of Congress, the agency since 1969 controls a 500-square-mile area that is the drainage into Lake Tahoe, including jurisdictions in California and Nevada.

Mark Anderson covers technology, agriculture, banking and finance, venture capital, energy, mining and hospitality for the Sacramento Business Journal.