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Dec. 5, 2007

Plaza Hotels, Plain and Fancy, Spar on Name

By STEVE FRIESS

LAS VEGAS: One is to be a luxurious $5 billion complex that will evoke the cachet of its New York namesake in an increasingly posh part of the Strip. The other is a weathered 35-year-old joint in this city’s decaying downtown core with $39 rooms and a buffet that always costs $7.77.

But they are both called the Plaza. So the owner of the downtown property, Tamares Las Vegas Properties, have filed a lawsuit to bar Elad Properties, owner of the Strip site and of the Plaza Hotel on Central Park South in Manhattan, from using that storied name.

Elad’s Plaza resort is due to open in 2011 at the earliest. Neither side seems eager to relinquish its designs on the name. Tamares Properties has asked the Clark County District Court to issue a preliminary injunction against Elad's use of the name.

Kenneth Landfield, the chief operating officer for Tamares, said, "On a legal basis, they felt they had a reason to use it, but from a business basis, I don't understand why they wouldn't come to us and talk to us first." Mr. Landfield added: "That's the name of our business. It's been the name of our business for more than 30 years."

Lloyd Kaplan, a spokesman for Elad, said the company owned the United States trademark registration to the name, giving Elad, a subsidiary of El Ad U.S. Holdings, "superior rights over the use of Plaza by Tamares, which was adopted only relatively recently."

"In addition to its U.S. trademark registration, Elad owns common-law rights in the trademark 'The Plaza' for hotels that date back more than 100 years," Mr. Kaplan said. "Elad is vigorously opposing Tamares's lawsuit and intends to fully enforce its superior trademark rights."

Mr. Kaplan also dismissed the possibility that Elad might try to buy the name from Tamares, a tactic used by the casino mogul Steve Wynn in 1988 to buy the name "The Mirage" from two small Las Vegas motels.

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