Planet Hollywood founder seeks better luck in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — When Planet Hollywood co-founder Robert Earl put together a group in 2004 to buy the bankrupt Aladdin hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip, it was already a fully operational 40-floor, 2,600-room property.

But the 56-year-old British entrepreneur says he's starting from "definitely ground floor" when it comes to rebuilding his wealth, following a personal loss of $1 billion as the restaurant company he built went bankrupt in 2001.

"On a personal level, I still have a lot to prove after what happened with the Planet restaurant company," Earl said. "And I plan to silence the critics, if you like, with the success that I'm hoping we're going to have in Vegas."

With this month's grand opening, the rebranded Planet Hollywood casino-hotel has gotten rid of most vestiges of the Middle Eastern-themed property where business collapsed after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Plastic jewel-encrusted pillars have been replaced by textured glass. A large staircase in the lobby has been replaced by an escalator flanked by Swarovski crystal-covered floor-to-ceiling lights. There's no more 20-foot-long Aladdin's lamp in the casino. Access for pedestrians on the Strip is much improved.

And each room now features a unique piece of Planet Hollywood memorabilia, like the leather jacket John Travolta wore in "Pulp Fiction," generating licensing revenue for Planet Hollywood International Inc., of which Earl is still the CEO.

As of June, the casino property was still losing money following its soft launch in April, about $15 million in the quarter, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Earl says despite the construction-impaired earnings, he and his partners have likely already doubled an $800 million investment — thanks to rising land values helped largely by MGM Mirage Inc.'s $7.8 billion CityCenter going up across the street.

"We're sitting on a very large profit even before we perform," he said. "We bought it inexpensively just at the right time. Everyone else in the industry says we stole it."

Earl's dream of opening a Planet Hollywood casino on the Strip dates back to at least 1996, when he tried to team up with ITT Corp., then owner of Caesars Palace, to rebuild the Desert Inn.

By the time ITT was bought out by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. two years later, plans for a Planet Hollywood casino had been dropped. Wynn Las Vegas now stands where the Desert Inn had been located.