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The Group Behind Atari Hotels

The Group Behind Atari Hotels

Based in Scottsdale Arizona, GSD Group is an innovation and strategy group with extensive experience in finance, education, and entertainment, focused on creating innovative verticals with legacy brands like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film franchise reboot, the upcoming Captain Kangaroo franchise reboot, Woz Innovation Foundation, and DesTechAZ.

Inspired by the legacy and creativity of iconic video-game pioneer Atari®, Atari® Hotels is a first of its kind hospitality endeavor designed around the culture of gaming with plans to build in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Austin, Denver, Chicago, San Jose, San Francisco, and Seattle. Atari Hotels blends the past, present, and future of video and immersive entertainment that offers guests a one-of-a-kind hospitality experience, complete with state of the art gaming amenities.

GSD Group Partners

Shelly Murphy

CEO & Managing Partner

BIO

Jordan Taylor

Managing Partner

BIO

Napoleon Smith III

Managing Partner

BIO
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"From the latest hotel rendering pictures released by Gensler, it can be seen that the design of Atari Hotels revolves around colorful neon lights, multi-faceted and huge LED digital displays and other elements..."
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"The latest renderings of the ambitious project first announced in January suggest a retro-futurist fever dream straight out of Blade Runner, as the classic 1980s gaming brand partners with GSD Group and architecture firm Gensler to design hotels that blend nostalgic sensibilities with modern technology."
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"A pop culture and video game-inspired hotel is coming to Las Vegas."
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"Atari Hotel in Las Vegas will look like: Cyberpunk concept art of a dystopian mall tower."
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"While the Atari that arcade gaming fans knew and loved in the '80s has long gone, the name continues to find itself attached to all sorts of fancy new projects, including the 'Atari Hotels' venture which we first spoke about earlier this year."
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"Atari Hotels perfectly blends the past, present, and future of video games and entertainment for a destination that offers guests a one-of-a-kind hospitality experience, complete with state-of-the-art amenities for esports fans and content creators."
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"The hotels will be inspired by science fiction, retro gaming and esports."
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"The new hotels "offer guests a wholly unique hospitality experience inspired by, and built with, classic and modern video game culture in mind." "
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"The idea is to blur the lines between nostalgia and the ever-evolving contemporary digital worlds."
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"It's called "Atari". Guests can enjoy the latest in video games, immersive entertainment, and play in retro-style gaming arcades."
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"Atari Hotels is a hotel that aims to realize a unique hospitality that fuses the past, present, and future of entertainment centered on video games."
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"Each Atari hotel is intended to provide an immersive and unique video gaming experience for visitors of all ages."
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"In an interview with FOX5, Napoleon Smith III, managing partner of Atari Hotels, discussed its plans to open their first video game-inspired hotel in Las Vegas."
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"The Atari Hotel chain could find a lot of success, particularly if it can succeed at appealing to retro and modern gamers, alike."
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"...such a colorful building packed with activities looks right at home in Las Vegas."
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"Atari will give guests the chance to explore and enjoy groundbreaking hospitality innovations, business opportunities, and a revolutionary variety of entertainment options."
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"Atari Hotels will increase the level of entertainment in hotels for people of all ages to enjoy."
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“Our hope is that you come in and never want to leave because there’s a lot of interaction.”
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“Atari is an iconic global brand that resonates with people of all ages, countries, cultures and ethnic backgrounds and we cannot wait for our fans and their families to enjoy this new hotel concept.”
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“Atari Hotels will be the first of their kind in the U.S., offering gamers of all ages the ultimate in immersive entertainment and in every aspect of gaming.”
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"One might evoke "Ready Player One," while another might draw from games of decades past."
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"Atari-themed hotel deal punctuates the gaming pioneer’s turnaround."

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Shelly Murphy

Shelly Murphy is the CEO and Managing Partner of GSD Group, the strategy and licensing group behind Atari Hotels. As the Managing Partner of Atari Hotels, Murphy is at the nexus of creating new verticals in technology, education and entertainment. She founded the largest tech and innovation event in Arizona, DesTechAZ with Steve Wozniak, and is CEO of the Woz Innovation Foundation, a non-profit focused on building the future of technology by providing opportunities for innovation through K-12 education. Murphy has over two decades of experience in finance with over $900MM USD issued in private activity bonds. Murphy established her career as the Executive Director and CEO of Arizona Higher Education Loan Authority, a not-for profit organization with a mission to provide low-cost education financing solutions for Arizona students.

Murphy’s extensive background and career experience in executive leadership, management, business development, and innovation prime her for a leading role at Atari Hotels.

Jordan Taylor

Jordan Taylor boasts an extensive background in finance and real estate and has worked closely with multiple Fortune 500 companies. Taylor has acquired, developed, and managed hospitality assets across five major markets in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Austin, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. He is also a partner and advisor for True North Studio, Capital Review Group and Arbor Wealth Management. Taylor has also served on several non-profit boards over his career, including Phoenix Positive Coaching Alliance, an organization that promotes positive youth sports culture in communities across the United States.

Before becoming a managing partner in GSD Group, Taylor developed and structured $300+ million USD of commercial real estate between 2016 and 2019. Taylor is poised to assist in establishing the Atari Hotels brand as one that is profitable, relevant, and enriching for its local markets.

Napoleon Smith III

For over 20 years, Napoleon Smith III has led the charge as an entrepreneurial and corporate venture powerhouse. After starting his own business, YoYo Zone, at the age of 21, Smith moved on to become Director of Sales at Sprint Mobile. In 2006, Smith co-founded Kono Media, the fourth largest children’s magazine in the country. Orchestrated in part by private equity and financial partners of Kono Media, Smith oversaw the purchase of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IP. He went on to become the Executive Producer of Michael Bay’s 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles adaptation with Paramount Pictures. After the acquisition of rights and trademark, Smith is currently partnered with Mark Wahlberg to produce a reboot of the popular Captain Kangaroo children’s TV show.

As an expert in his field, Smith is utilizing his branding and identity chops, as well as his start-up development knowledge, to help bring the Atari Hotels vision to life. His primary focus is making Atari Hotels an unforgettable experiential getaway that brings pop culture to the hospitality industry in a way never thought possible.