2001, a competition was run to win the actual bus, but it was never given away and remained with the cafe. Expansion into other businesses Casinos and hotels In 1995, Peter Morton spent $80 million to open the Hard Rock Hotel near the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. A subsequent $100 million expansion in 1999 nearly doubled the hotel's capacity. In May 2006, Morton sold the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas to Morgans Hotel Group for $770 million, including the rights to the Hard Rock Hotel brand west of the Mississippi, including Texas, California, Australia, and Vancouver, British Columbia. The hotel began another expansion in 2007 at a cost of $750 million. The project added 875 rooms in two towers and expanded meeting space. In March 2011, Morgans surrendered control of the property to partner Brookfield Asset Management, citing the high debt on the property in the face of the economic downturn. In April 2018, the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas was sold to Richard Branson with plans to renovate the property under the Virgin Hotels brand; Virgin Hotels Las Vegas debuted in March 2021. Today, the Seminole Tribe of Florida owns and operates all units except the Sioux City, Tulsa, and Vancouver properties. In 2004, Hard Rock International and Sol Melia Hotels and Resorts launched Lifestar Hoteles España SL, a joint venture that intended to manage Europe's first Hard Rock Hotel in Madrid, but it was never opened as a Hard Rock property upon the dissolution of the joint venture in 2007. The other joint venture hotels are in Chicago, New York, and San Diego (the San Diego property includes Hard Rock condominiums). Hard Rock also operates hotels and resorts in Orlando, Florida (a joint venture with Loews Hotels); Bali, Indonesia; and Pattaya, Thailand, (a joint venture with Ong Beng Seng/Hotel Properties Limited). Hard Rock International continues to expand internationally (including hotels, casinos, resorts, and condominiums) through several joint ventures (Becker Ventures, Ong Beng Seng/Hotel Properties Limited and Loews Hotels), including hotels in Chicago, Bali, Orlando, Penang, San Diego, Singapore, and planned openings in Abu Dhabi, Cancun, Dubai, Hungary, Panama, Punta Cana and Puerto Vallarta, as well as hotel-casinos in Hollywood, Florida; Tampa, Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Catoosa, Oklahoma, just northeast of Tulsa. (The Hard Rock Casino in Biloxi, MS is owned by Twin River Management Group, Inc.) Opened on 20 January 2010