Ben Jaffe was forced to sell his interests in other properties to finance the completion of the construction of the Tropicana Hotel. Plagued by construction delays and budget overruns due in part to competition for skilled labor with the under-construction Stardust Hotel. His goal was to build the most elegant hotel in Las Vegas, featuring the ambiance of Cuba and the elegance of France and Italy. In the year 1955 Ben Jaffe, a hotel executive from Miami Florida, arrived in Las Vegas and bought 40-acres of land on the (then) desolate corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Bond Road (now Tropicana Avenue).