Lake Tahoe resort once owned by Sinatra set to get makeover

RENO — A Lake Tahoe resort once owned by Frank Sinatra and frequented by his Rat Pack buddies is about to undergo a major makeover.

The Cal Neva hotel-casino that straddles the California-Nevada line will close for more than a year beginning today to allow for the multimillion-dollar project.

The 219-room, 10-story hotel and 6,000-square-foot casino will be upgraded to revive the struggling property, said Robert Radovan, co-owner of Criswell-Radovan. His Napa Valley, Calif.-based development company acquired the Cal Neva in April.

“Our goal is to bring it back to its former glory and to make it what it was like in Sinatra’s day,” Radovan told The Associated Press. “It has such great soul and character, and it’s needed this redo for many decades.”

The property has fallen on hard times because of the double-whammy of the recession and competition from Las Vegas and Indian casinos. Its casino was forced to shut down in 2010 due to declining business.

During its heyday from 1960 to 1963, the Cal Neva was owned by Sinatra and became one of the most famous resorts in the country. It drew fellow Rat Packers Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford, and stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio and Juliet Prowse.

Monroe spent her final weekend at the Cal Neva before she died of a drug overdose in Los Angeles in August 1962.

Sinatra himself renovated the Cal Neva, adding the celebrity showroom and a helicopter pad on the roof. He used tunnels to shuffle mobsters and celebrities beneath the resort so they wouldn’t be seen by the general public.

The tunnels were built in the late 1920s so liquor could be smuggled in during Prohibition.