Dreamscape’s Rio Las Vegas Bet Stalls at One Tower

Rio Las Vegas closed Phase One of its $340 million renovation on September 30, 2024, after Dreamscape Companies took over operations.

The 1,500-room Ipanema Tower, the casino, four pools and 220,000 square feet of meeting space came back new. The Masquerade Tower was left for Phase Two, which the resort said would start later in 2024. As of January 2026 that work had not started. In April 2026, Kennedy Lewis Investment Management took majority control, and Dreamscape dropped to a minority stake.

Phase One Left One Tower Untouched

Dreamscape, the New York firm led by Eric Birnbaum, announced the completion of the first phase once the Ipanema side and the public rooms were done. Patrick Miller, then president and CEO, had been hired from MGM Resorts, where he had run Park MGM, to put a faded off-Strip resort back in the fight on price and group business.

These renovations mark the beginning of a new era

Patrick Miller, then President and CEO, Rio Hotel & Casino, September 30, 2024 statement

He also talked about an elevated, approachable luxury pitch for locals and visitors. The work that actually shipped was more specific than that line. Early 2024 finished more than a tower of guest rooms. Designers at Dreamscape and Marnell Architecture Planning and Design, the shop tied to the original Rio, restyled Ipanema suites around Brazilian apartment cues, with 580 square feet, a 65-inch television, a sectional sofa and a queen pull-out bed in the standard layout.

The casino, listed at 117,000 square feet, got new carpet and over 900 new slot machines with bets from a penny to more than $500, plus 30 tables and video poker. Outside, lighting designers Chris Kuroda and Andrew Giffin wrapped the building in over three miles of programmable LEDs. Kuroda drew on visual work from almost 1,800 Phish shows, and the resort sold the result as a live piece that would not repeat the same show twice.

WHAT PHASE ONE DELIVERED

Eight new food and drink spots opened in that first wave. Canteen Food Hall arrived in January 2024 with six counters. Lapa Lounge, a Rio de Janeiro cocktail room with a honey onyx bar, opened in July 2024. Luckley Tavern & Grill, run with restaurateur Oliver Wharton, put steaks and wings on a casual all-American menu. The pool deck split an adult side from a family deck, with chaise lounges, daybeds and cabanas on both.

The property still has two towers. Only one of them was in the first invoice.

A $516.3 Million Sale, Then a $340 Million Redo

Caesars Entertainment completed the $516.3 million sale to Dreamscape on December 5, 2019, a figure that included fees, expenses and $40 million of seller financing. Harrah’s Entertainment, the company that later became Caesars, had paid $766 million for the same resort in 1999. By the time Birnbaum’s firm closed, the World Series of Poker still had a 2020 date on the books, and hosting rights stayed with Caesars after that.

The deal was not a clean handoff. A Caesars unit leased the hotel back, paying $45 million a year for at least two years, with a $7 million option to extend a third year on similar terms. Guests stayed in the Caesars Rewards network through the lease. Dreamscape did not take operations until October 2023, which meant the buyer spent years on plans while someone else ran the floor.

Anthony Marnell’s firm, which built the original Brazilian-themed all-suite hotel, came back as architect. The published budget on the official Hyatt and Rio pages is $340 million, not a full rebuild of both towers. In August 2025, Atlanta lender Peachtree Group closed a $176.5 million CPACE loan on the 2,520-room resort, a retroactive Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy deal that reimbursed finished energy and building work and paid down senior debt. Peachtree called it the largest credit trade in its own history and said the close took under 60 days. Jared Schlosser, head of originations and CPACE at Peachtree, said large banks were consenting because they saw a benefit in the capital stack.

HOW THE WAGER WAS BUILT

1. December 5, 2019: Caesars completes the $516.3 million sale to a Dreamscape affiliate owned by Eric Birnbaum.
2. October 2023: Dreamscape takes over operations after the Caesars lease, then launches its own rewards club.
3. January 2024: Canteen Food Hall opens and the Ipanema room redo is in service.
4. September 30, 2024: Phase One is declared complete; Phase Two is described as starting later that year.
5. November 21, 2024: The resort joins Destination by Hyatt after World of Hyatt access in March 2024.
6. August 2025: Peachtree closes the $176.5 million CPACE loan on finished improvements.
7. April 2026: Kennedy Lewis becomes majority owner; Dreamscape is the minority holder.

The loan refinanced work that was already in the walls. It did not, on the public record, fund a Masquerade Tower start date.

The Credit Fund That Bought Out Dreamscape

Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, a private credit firm, took the majority stake in April 2026 by buying out casino executive Bill McBeath, a former Aria and Cosmopolitan operator who had held a minority piece. Dreamscape remained in the structure as a minority owner. Birnbaum still spoke for the old sponsor when the new operating bench was named.

The Rio said Rod Turlan, a longtime Caesars operator, would serve as president and general manager, replacing Miller. Lori Ware, who had been CFO at Jamul Casino Resort, replaced Christopher Balaban on the finance side. Ashley Lowe, most recently in sales at M Resort, came in as senior vice president of sales. Vince Lentini, who had been in casino posts at Margaritaville at Sea, took senior vice president of marketing. Balaban later moved to a finance job at Grand Sierra Resort in Reno. Michelle Engstrom, vice president of marketing, and Laurae Clifford, who had been selling groups, also left.

Rod Turlan, together with these newly hired executives and our existing leadership team, brings the right combination of experience and talent to Rio at this important stage of its transformation

Eric Birnbaum, CEO of Dreamscape Retail & Entertainment, April 2026 statement

Lloyd Nathan, chairman of Rio Real Estate Holding Company LLC, and Pavan Kapur, a former Caesars executive brought in on commercial operations, are the other names tied to strategy. Stake percentages were not published. Neither was a new figure for Masquerade construction.

WHAT WE KNOW

• Majority owner: Kennedy Lewis Investment Management has held the controlling stake since April 2026.
• Minority owner: Dreamscape Companies remains in the ownership group after the McBeath buyout.
• Hotel brand: The resort is still a Destination by Hyatt hotel in the World of Hyatt program.
• Operating chief: Rod Turlan is president and general manager; Patrick Miller is out of that job.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Phase Two date: No public start has been set for a full Masquerade Tower room remodel.
• New capital: Kennedy Lewis has not posted a fresh renovation budget for the second tower.
• Exact stakes: The split between the credit fund and Dreamscape has not been disclosed in a filing cited here.

A credit fund that buys a majority after a large CPACE refinance is usually there to protect the stack, not to extend a design dream. That is the open question hanging over the second tower, and the property has not answered it in public.

Why the Masquerade Tower Still Looks Dated

Phase Two was supposed to cover Masquerade Tower rooms and the old Masquerade Village public space, including the void where Show in the Sky once ran. Miller, in a February 2026 sit-down, still described that wing as something the company had to evaluate, with talk of anchor tenants and the Empire Shops already in place on one side. He called the back-of-house casino there a large non-smoking floor. He did not give a construction start.

As of January 2026, that second phase had not started. Guest notes into September 2026 still describe Masquerade rooms as behind the Ipanema product. The village, though, has been filling with shows rather than drywall. In August 2026 the resort partnered with Ivory Star Productions to turn The Venue into a two-showroom hub with immersive dining and a Box Office Bar. Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding and a drag brunch took slots. In September 2026, Haunted Brunch moved into The Venue at Masquerade Village for a Halloween run.

Programming is cheaper than a thousand-room remodel, and it keeps the old wing busy at night. It does not close the gap a meeting planner sees when half the keys are 2024 product and the other half are not. Penn & Teller still hold the long residency that outlasted Caesars, the poker series, and two ownership groups. That showroom can sell a weekend. It cannot hide a tower that never entered Phase One.

220,000 Square Feet Joins Hyatt’s Convention Alliance

The group pitch was always larger than the pool photos. On November 21, 2024, after Phase One, the hotel joined the Destination by Hyatt brand, becoming Hyatt’s largest property by room count and the first Destination by Hyatt hotel in Nevada. World of Hyatt members had already been able to earn and burn points since March 2024. Mike Waddell, Hyatt’s senior vice president of global franchise operations, called Rio “an icon reborn” and pointed members at the off-Strip mix of leisure and conventions.

On February 20, 2025, Rio Las Vegas joined the Hyatt Convention Alliance for the Las Vegas market, taking the network to 11 hotels in 10 U.S. cities. Alliance hotels had ranged from 1,003 to 2,032 rooms. Rio’s 2,520 keys and 220,000 square feet of meeting space raised the ceiling for rotational events. Jacqueline Kennedy, director of business development for the alliance, sold it as a west-coast option with a different hotel than the usual Strip blocks.

Laurae Clifford, then running group sales, stressed World of Hyatt points for planners and attendees and the one-block hop to the Strip. She left in the 2026 purge. The space she was selling is still there: Pavilion, Brasilia, Amazon, Miranda and Tropical ballrooms, with rooms from 11,000 to 55,000 square feet, a 3,300-square-foot stage in Pavilion, 30-foot ceilings in that hall, three ground-level docks with elephant doors, and setups from 10 people to 5,000. The floor can split into 78 breakout rooms.

SIX COUNTERS IN CANTEEN FOOD HALL

• Attaboy Burger: Chef Alex Resnick’s beef-first stand with little in the way of extra toppings.
• Nama Nama: Japanese street-style sushi built around alleyway energy.
• Tony Luke’s: The South Philadelphia shop’s cheesesteaks and roast pork.
• Shogun Ramen: Master chef Foo Kanegae’s rotating bowls.
• Tender Crush: A chicken-tender counter from Chris Barish and Julie Mulligan of Black Tap, with sauces named for New York boroughs.
• Southland Burrito Co.: Chef Marco Herrera’s Sonoran burritos on a thin flour tortilla.

A planner can feed a mid-size association in that hall and put 5,000 people in Pavilion. The catch in the room block is the tower mix. Hyatt points do not make a 1990s Masquerade key feel like a 2024 Ipanema suite, and that is the product the alliance is now taking on the road.

Cheap Craps and a Food Hall Keep Locals Coming

Walk back onto the main floor after a long gap and the first impression is color, a wider path, a new check-in, and a circle bar that was not there in the Caesars years. Keno is still on the floor, which is rare enough to stop people who remember when every casino had it. The old Carnival World Buffet is gone, replaced by Canteen, and that swap still annoys regulars who wanted the steam tables back. Eggslut, the breakfast counter, later joined the dining list as the property kept adding names after Phase One.

The locals hook is price on the felt. The casino has run a $3 craps window from 3 a.m. to 3 p.m., a limit the Strip rarely posts in daylight. That promo is also where the floor leaks. Players have shown up for the $3 game and found a $5 table after the lunch hour, which is a fast way to burn the goodwill a $3 sign is meant to buy. Dim sum service that ends at 3 p.m. in a restaurant with dim sum in the name produces the same complaint in a different outlet.

Masquerade Bar, once a late-night magnet, now photographs like a holdover. The Ipanema-side rooms, the new carpet, and the food hall are doing the work Miller described in 2024. The back of the house is doing something else: selling nostalgia and a cheap dice game while the second tower waits on a credit committee.

Nearly 100 Teamsters Voted to Authorize a Strike

On November 12, 2025, members of Teamsters Local 986 at the Rio voted to authorize a strike over unfair labor practice charges. The local said nearly 100 workers had been on a contract that expired in April 2024, and that talks with Dreamscape, described in the union’s post as an affiliate of Hyatt resorts, had been stalled. Tim Vera, president of Local 986, put the fight in cash terms.

The Rio can afford to meet the demands of our members, but management is refusing so they can put more money in their own pockets. It’s wrong, and the Teamsters are not going to let them get away with it

Tim Vera, President, Teamsters Local 986, November 12, 2025 statement

A $340 million guest-facing redo and a $176.5 million energy loan can sit beside a bargaining table that has not moved for many months. That is the labor half of the same bet. The people who clean the new Ipanema rooms and staff the food hall are not on the Hyatt Convention Alliance flyer, and they voted to walk if the next offer stayed where it was.

Kennedy Lewis has now had the majority since April 2026. The Venue is open. Haunted Brunch is on the Masquerade Village calendar. Phase Two, promised for late 2024, still has no public start date.