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Imperial Palace gets $230 million makeover to become the Quad — no, the Linq Hotel
By Robin Leach (contact)
Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014 | 11:57 p.m.
For more than 30 years, it reigned on the Strip as Imperial Palace and was known far more for being one of the world’s Top 10 car museums with one of the largest collections of motor vehicles anywhere than it was for its corridor carpeting and rooms.
Then Caesars Entertainment acquired the property and began its conversion into the Quad. Once the Linq Promenade and High Roller observation wheel construction were underway, executives decided that the hotel would become a far more integrated part of the area’s overall appeal and design.
So on Thursday with a 3 p.m. red ribbon-cutting ceremony, the Quad becomes the Strip’s newest hotel name-changed to the Linq Hotel in a $230 million makeover.
This is a major transformation — with a new, enlarged check-in area named 3535 (the address of the property) that serves as lavish lobby and DJ and mixology bar — and more than 2,200 fully upgraded and updated rooms and suites. Two new pools with luxury cabanas and a dayclub experience on a new pool deck will complete the magnificent makeover next spring.
This is no lipstick on a pig transaction. The Linq Hotel fully reflects the look, mood and feel of its neighboring open-air shopping, dining and entertainment district the Linq Promenade.
In fact, the more than 30 restaurant and gift-shop tenants at Linq Promenade are on call to make fast deliveries right to your room in the new hotel. Could brothers and chefs Bruce or Eric Bromberg personally deliver the fabulous fried chicken from Brooklyn Bowl?
Guests who check into the Linq tucked between Harrah’s and the Flamingo will get free passes to ride the High Roller’s 28 glass-enclosed cabins — some with bars serve champagne and shots.
And also get complimentary VIP admission to Drai’s Beach Club and Nightclub atop the nearby sister boutique hotel the Cromwell. That’s proved a huge draw with thousands of new reservations already made for after Thursday’s opening.
“Finally it’s all integrated as one distinctive destination,” Jon Gray, VP and GM of the Linq, told me during our sneak preview. “This adds 2,256 rooms to the Linq neighborhood, and it will now be a complete, seamless experience. The new name clears up any confusion. It’s all Linq.”
The new from old property has entered the digital modern age in a big way. There are plug-ins for cell phones, tablets and laptops nearly everywhere you turn and electric-car charging stations in the garage.
Type away on your notepad while it simultaneously charges in the lobby bar as you refresh with a full mixology program. The new 3535 bar and lounge will become the central gathering spot with booths, couches and gaming tables.
The digital TV in the rooms takes away all need for room directories, room service menus and other paper annoyances. When you walk in, it’s to a bright, sleek, comfortable, modern, clutter-free room (at $89 a night, it might well be the best-looking bargain in town).
Order whatever you need from TV clicks, including speedy deliveries from Linq Promenade’s stores and restaurants and extra towels from housekeeping. Now if only it could guarantee a reservation at peak hours in Giada’s at the Cromwell. For that alone it would pay to check into the Linq!
There’s an additional fun in-room touch because “Game Is On” allows guests to play box and board games like Yahtzee, Jenga, Twister and more. Or walk right out of the hotel into the Linq Promenade for its fun and games. Don’t miss the Polaroid museum store or the Sprinkles ATM for cupcakes.
Instead of the dingy, dark and entrapped feeling from the Imperial Palace days, the Linq Hotel has new, wide open and bright-light spaces with white-tiled walls and floors, while color-coordinated carpets correspond to the three towers.
The ever-changing look of the Strip continues one more time with the Linq Hotel. Welcome to the neighborhood. What was old is very young again!
Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.
