Palm Tree Beach Club opens on Las Vegas Strip

A little more than five years ago, Wet Republic was due for a revamp. It got that overhaul. But it was far more extensive than originally conceived.

Tao Group Hospitality has redesigned and rebranded the space as Palm Tree Beach Club. The hospitality behemoth’s co-CEOs Jason Strauss and Noah Tepperberg have forged a multifaceted partnership with DJ/producer Kygo and his manager/partner Myles Shear in this new Vegas venture.

The umbrellas and beach chairs were swiftly folded up at Wet Republic. The grand, 60,000-square-foot space was leader in the pool-party culture when it opened in 2008, but now a piece of Vegas hospitality history.

Kygo and Shear founded Palm Tree Crew, which operates Palm Tree Club Miami and Palm Tree Club Orlando. Strauss visited the Miami club in March and was happily stunned at the experience.

“We were making a dramatic financial commitment to redoing the old Wet Republic and rebranding it, and I was just in Miami this past weekend for their Palm Tree hotel and outside nightclub,” Strauss says. “It was slammed beyond belief. I couldn’t believe how many people were there, and the quality of the people and the kind of spending that was going on, just the beauty of the crowd. They’re crushing it in Miami.”

This past weekend’s relaunch party was populated by such VIPs as actor and producer Sydney Sweeney, actor and entrepreneur Jessica Alba, White Lotus’ Patrick Schwarzenegger, J. Balvin, Alesso and MGK (formerly Machine Gun Kelly), and more. (I hadn’t known MGK was his new handle, but there you go.)

The weekend-long celebration also marked the launch of Kygo’s first daylife residency. His production was highlighted by grand-piano solos — which you don’t see every day, or any day, at a dayclub. Live orchestras, drummers and vocalists were also in the mix.

Kygo performed a duet with pop singer/songwriter Ava Max on “Whatever.” Sets from Justin Jesso, Parson James, Victoria Nadine, among others, powered the party.

Strauss says he and Tepperberg have a good feel for who to contact for headlining spots at all of their clubs. The guys still hang regularly at their daylife and nightclub venues. But they are also leaning on multigenerational (read, younger) ideas from five highly knowledgeable music enthusiasts.

“We pride ourselves on being really plugged into our guests and the guests experience and what’s happening in each market. So I think we have our own gut on how we identify these artists, and how we schedule them,” Strauss says. “But we’re not naive to the fact that we’re older guys, we’re busy running a company, so we spent a lot of time recruiting young, smart minds in our artist-relation department to see different artists that are coming up through the ranks.”

Similar to the days when Diplo and Zedd played their first nightclub shows at Marquee at The Cosmopolitan, Tao Group signed DJ Mustard to a residency at that club. Mustard has since performed at the Super Bowl, will join Kendrick Lamar at Allegiant Stadium and host a post-show party at Hakkasan.

Says Strauss, “We were first to really double-down on a residency with him.”

On the summer horizon at PTBC are such worldwide electronic-music artists Tiësto, Martin Garrix, Zedd, Steve Aoki, Alesso, Fisher, Chris Lake and DJ Pauly D.

The PTBC brand, direction and partnership is a restart for the MGM Grand’s daylife venue.

“The people that know the Wet Republic brand, after 15-plus years, aren’t going to dayclubs as often,” Strauss says. “There’s a whole new generation that is looking for this daytime experience. We want to partner with a brand and an artist that really resonates with them. So we are making those moves.”

Get the kicks

Don’t be surprised to see members of Wrexham A.F.C. turn up at Tao Group Hospitality venues this weekend. We anticipate a big blowout (the best kind) to celebrate the team’s promotion to the English Football League Championship. This is the club’s second move up in the Football League in two years. Hollywood stars and co-owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds have pumped life back into the historic franchise.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.