Former Atrium hotel near Las Vegas Strip to become Siegel Suites

A boarded-up hotel east of the Strip is slated to be torn down and replaced with a Siegel Suites.

The Siegel Group, owner of the shuttered former Atrium, next to the Hard Rock Hotel, wants to demolish the six-story building and construct a “flexible-stay” apartment complex.

It aims to tear down the hotel at 4255 Paradise Road in the first quarter of 2020 and start building the five-story, 480-unit Siegel Suites project by early third quarter, according to company founder Steve Siegel.

“We plan to move on this quickly,” he said.

The Clark County Planning Commission is scheduled to consider project plans Tuesday.

The redevelopment would breathe life into a long-shuttered property surrounded by barbed-wire-topped fencing. The plans also come as the Hard Rock, purchased last year by flamboyant British billionaire Richard Branson and partners, is set to become a Virgin-branded resort in a $200 million-plus overhaul.

The Atrium was already closed when Siegel bought the property about eight years ago. He said his group’s past ideas for the site included a boutique hotel and called for keeping the building, but they started toying with the notion of tearing it down a year ago.

Michael Crandall, senior vice president with The Siegel Group, noted the project would be the second newly built Siegel Suites complex in Las Vegas, with “many more” in the pipeline locally in the next few years.

The Las Vegas real estate firm typically buys existing buildings and converts them to the low-cost apartment brand. Weekly rates start at $189, according to its website, though Crandall said prices at the new complex would be higher than average for the chain.

Units come furnished, and Crandall said tenants must sign a minimum 30-day rental agreement.

Los Angeles investors bought the Atrium in 2007 for $50.5 million, county records show. The purchase was one of many boom-era real estate deals in Las Vegas that were financed by New York investment giant Lehman Brothers, whose 2008 collapse helped trigger the U.S. financial crisis.

The owners closed the hotel for renovations, but the property went into foreclosure in 2011 before work had finished.

Siegel has said construction materials were left behind, and it looked like “somebody just blew the whistle and everybody walked out.”

His company announced in early 2012 that it acquired the 202-room hotel with an investment group for just $4.2 million, a fraction of the pre-recession price.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.