New Paris Las Vegas Tower, Annexed from Horseshoe, Getting Rare Balconies

Posted on: April 15, 2024, 10:53h. 

Last updated on: April 16, 2024, 09:07h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Myths.

Many unusual attributes will accompany the new Versailles Tower at Paris — unusual even for Las Vegas — when it fully opens later this year.

A rendering of the soon-to-be-completed Versailles Tower at Paris Las Vegas. (Image: Caesars Entertainment)

First of all, it’s not new at all, but one of the oldest towers at the former Bally’s, which last year got rebranded the Horseshoe.

The flooring of new balconies is attached to the outside of Bellagio-facing rooms in the Versailles Tower at Paris, which still sports its blue Bally’s stripes. (Image: Scott Roeben/Vital Vegas)

The Versailles provides the only example we can find in Las Vegas history of a tower transferring between two properties while both properties were still in business. (Technically, both properties are owned by the same corporation, Caesars Entertainment, but we think that still counts.)

And, most enticingly, as broken by Casino.org’s Vital Vegas blog on Monday, the Versailles will be the first Las Vegas Strip property to feature new balconies since The Cosmopolitan opened in 2010.

It’s part of a refresh — the tower’s first since 2014 — for which Caesars will pay an estimated $100 million. That should pay for itself in mere weeks, however, due to the exorbitant room rates that tourists have proven willing to pay to sit on balconies facing the Strip.

All 756 rooms and suites throughout the tower have now been renovated with all-new furniture, fixtures, and equipment, and decorated in the colors of the French flag.

In fact, most of the Versailles Tower has already been open for months. It’s only the Bellagio-facing rooms — the ones getting the balconies for viewing the fountains and the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix — that are still under construction.

This will be the third rebranding for the 26-story tower, which opened in 1982 as the south tower of the original MGM Grand and became part of Bally’s in 1986. It was renamed the Jubilee Tower in 2013 and then became part of Horseshoe Las Vegas in 2022.

Though the Bally’s name was removed from the Jubilee Tower during the Horseshoe rebrand, only the exterior of the north tower received a Horseshoe paint job and signage.

Terrace May Sue

The Versailles Tower, not quite finished transforming from its former MGM Grand/Bally’s incarnations, appears in a photo posted to Google earlier this month. (Image: Google)

Las Vegas resort companies never discuss taboo subjects, such as why neither Resorts World nor Fontainebleau opened with balconies. Fortunately, Roeben almost always does in his excellent blog.

“Specifically, people sometimes jump from them,” he wrote. “Yes, liability is a concern with balconies, and a number of Las Vegas hotels used to have them, but they’ve been closed off, thanks to lawyers.”

A second-floor pedestrian bridge is currently under construction to connect the Versailles Tower to the Paris mainland, eliminating the current need to access the tower through a ground-floor walkway entering the Horseshoe.

No timeline was given for the tower’s completion, but expect it to open in time for the second F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, running from November 21-23.