Las Vegas-area firm buys Lake Las Vegas hotel and gaming property

Under leases, the owner of the Ravella brand continues to run the hotel and Intrepid Gaming Operating Company remains the licensed gaming operator at Casino MonteLago.
The hotel site initially was a Ritz-Carlton. It closed in May 2010, and a Deutsche Bank unit foreclosed on the real estate.

In January 2011, Dolce Hotels & Resorts took over the lease for the 349-room property and gave it the Ravella brand. Casino MonteLago closed in March 2010 because of the Ritz-Carlton closure. It reopened last year after the Ravella opened.

Newage is a unit of Kam Sang Co., Arcadia, California, in the Los Angeles area. It owns multiple hotels in Southern California. This is the second big hotel deal this year at Lake Las Vegas. In March, it was revealed that the 493-room Loews Lake Las Vegas had converted to the Westin brand.

Phil Wolfgramm, senior vice president at Kam Sang, said Thursday that the company has been interested in the Lake Las Vegas hotel property since its Ritz-Carlton days.
He said the hotel was built to high-end standards and is ideally suited to serve companies as a training and meeting location. It’s not far from the Las Vegas Strip but enjoys the quieter atmosphere at Lake Las Vegas, he said.

Dolce is doing a good job operating Ravella and will stay in place, he added. “Dolce has re-established it as a meeting hotel”.

The existing casino operator will stay in place, as Kam Sang isn’t experienced in gaming. With a stable, long-term owner in place, the future is bright for both properties, Wolfgramm said. “We’re ecstatic to be there,” he said. This is the first investment for Kam Sang in the Las Vegas area.

Wolfgramm said that besides its four hotels in Southern California, Kam Sang has investments in the restaurant industry and in mixed-use retail commercial real estate.