CRYSTAL BAY -- The Cal-Neva Resort on the north side of Lake Tahoe has been sold to Arizona investors for $30 million.

Owner Chuck Bluth, who owned the casino for 20 years, said the property was sold Wednesday to a newly formed company in Phoenix called Namcal.

Bluth said the owners plan to continue developing time shares at the resort, part of Bluth's initial $20 million remodeling project. The deal will become a joint venture between his construction company and the corporation.

"They plan to bring the facility up to a four-diamond rating," Bluth said. "They'll renovate rooms to bring it up to that level."

Bluth said he decided to sell the property because he was tired of dealing with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, which is charged with enforcing environmental regulations in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

"I'm tired of their regulating everything I did, and I'm tired of dealing with them," Bluth told the Tahoe Daily Tribune. "The environment here is anti-business. Even when you're doing things to improve your property they fight you tooth and nails."

Bluth will lease the casino for the next four months, after which Larry Woolf, a managing member of the company that operates Casino Fandango in Carson City and former president of Caesars at Tahoe, will lease the casino, Bluth said.

"He knows the business well and will be successful at it," Bluth said.

The Cal-Neva, once owned by Frank Sinatra, was a haven for celebrities like the Rat Pack and Marilyn Monroe. It was closed for three years before Bluth bought it in 1985.

TRPA Executive Director John Singlaub said he's sorry Bluth feels the way he does.

"We've had a lot of success working with hotels at Lake Tahoe," Singlaub said. "We work very hard to keep this a nice place, and if Chuck doesn't agree with that, then I'm sorry."