"The federal name "The Plaza" is registered in the name of Elad Group exclusively, and under federal law only it has the right to use the name," said Elad Properties in response to yesterday's report about the request of Tamares Las Vegas Properties LLC, regarding the injunction for an injunction barring Elad and Property and Building Ltd. (TASE: PTBL) from using the name "Plaza" for their joint casino venture on the Strip.
Elad is the private real estate venture of Yitzhak Tshuva, and Property and Building is a subsidiary of IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. (TASE:IDBH), controlled by chairman and CEO Nochi Dankner. British real estate tycoon Pujo Zabludowicz owns Tamares.
Elad added, "The suit filed by Tamares is out of place and should be withdrawn, because they are using a name that is not theirs to use under federal law. The court ruled that the case will not be heard in federal court, and sent to a local court in Las Vegas. At this stage, there is no injunction or other order barring the use of the Plaza name."
Last week, the US District Court for the District of Nevada remanded the case to the Clark County District Court in Las Vegas.
The companies of Tshuva and Dankner on one side and Zabludowicz on the other are in court over who has the right to use the name "Plaza" in Las Vegas. Tamares says that has owned the Plaza Hotel and Casino in the city for more than 30 years, and that Elad IDB Las Vegas LLC should not be allowed to use the name.
Tamares general counsel Harry Braunstein told "Globes", "Tshuva will undoubtedly success in Las Vegas with Dankner, but cannot use the Plaza brand. We have a hotel called the Plaza, and we have no choice but to defend our rights in court. We'll let the judge decide, not the media. We believe in our name in Las Vegas. Zabludowicz greatly respects the other parties, but he wants to defend his rights."
Dankner and Tshuva own Elad IDB in equal shares. They are planning to build a 1.5 million square meter casino and hotel on the site of the old Frontier hotel at a cost of $1 billion.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 27, 2007
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