Question of the Day - 01 October 2024

Like many places in Las Vegas, the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood is not an original concept. Rather, it takes its name from L.A.'s Miracle Mile, the stretch of Wilshire Boulevard bought and developed in the 1920s by A.W. Ross, who had the vision to transform it from a narrow dirt track into a busy retail destination, aided by the rise of the personal automobile. Ross originally named it Wilshire Boulevard Center, but later renamed it the Miracle Mile after a friend of his joked about how excited Ross was about his project, or so the story goes. Today, it's known best for the La Brea Tar Pits and some historic Art Deco architecture.

As for the Las Vegas version, this also started out under a different moniker, debuting as Desert Passage with the newly reincarnated Aladdin in the summer of 2000. That whole enterprise was pretty much doomed from the start, blighted by animosity between the hotel-casino and the separately owned mall, neither of which promoted the other. The entries to both the casino and mall from the Strip were obscure and uninviting and the debut of the resort-casino was marred by construction delays, massive cost overruns, and a fiasco of a grand opening: The fireworks were canceled by the Fire Department, check-in and valet staff sported hard hats (which were not offered to guests), festivities were drowned out by the vocal protests of the Culinary Union, and a casino where the very first bank of machines to greet guests as they entered were all out of commission, marked with hastily prepared "Out of Order" signs.

By 2003, both facets of the new development were in trouble and the casino was sold to a partnership between Starwood Resorts and Planet Hollywood. The whole Arabian theme was axed and the shopping mall, which was also sold, was re-branded as the Miracle Mile Shops, presumably in an effort to evoke an upscale urban vibe, with some new retailers in place.

The indoor mall comprises 170 stores and restaurants in a 475,000-square-foot space and yes, it is actually 1.2 miles long ("The Miracle Mile and a Bit" doesn't sound quite as compelling, somehow).