Will the Mirage Towers Be Torn Down for the Hard Rock Guitar?

I've read that the Seminoles bought The Mirage and plan to open a Hard Rock Hotel-Casino there. The hotel will have the same guitar shape as the one in Hollywood, Florida. But will they tear down the existing Mirage towers and replace them with the guitar hotel?

No. The existing towers will remain — but not in their current guise.

Hard Rock International Chairman Jim Allen has explained, “MGM has kept it in great condition, but I think we all know that it’s extremely dated. You will see concrete on the floor and concrete on the roof and everything else will be brand new. Frankly, some of the structure will change. For the existing 3,000 rooms, it’s our plan to gut them completely, bathrooms and everything, and start over.”

Allen would not go into details and has been extremely vague about the fate of the Strip-facing volcano. But given that the new guitar-shaped hotel would go in front of the Mirage, as can be seen in the artist rendering, there's a strong possibility that the volcano is toast. The fate of the dolphin habitat and Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden, with its big cats, also remains up in the air. Said Allen, “Certainly, we want to protect [the inhabitants] and make sure that their lives as animals are as comfortable as they are today.”

Hard Rock appears to have taken on The Mirage as a loss-leader for its wider casino empire, giving it a Strip flagship. How else to explain paying $1 billion for a resort that generates $64 million in cash flow (after rent payments) per year? There’s not much return on investment in that.

As CBRE analyst John DeCree put it, “Hard Rock will be able to do this right, without concern for short-term return-on-investment hurdles.” In other words, Hard Rock is sitting on so much money, it can afford some lean years while it reinvents the Mirage. Also, we've seen the Mirage referred to by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which owns the Hard Rock brand, as a "generational asset." Meaning that the iconic center Strip casino will help to support tribal members for generations to come.

In the meantime, it will still be The Mirage for three more years, as Hard Rock gets to borrow the name rent-free. Then rights to the Mirage moniker revert to MGM Resorts International and the name Hard Rock Las Vegas will take its place.

Otherwise, Hard Rock is being pretty tight-lipped about its plans. But we expect details to leak out as the deal closes and more plans are firmed. Watch our “Vegas News” space for further developments as they occur.

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Comments

Dave_Miller_DJTB Jan-08-2022

Size, position

While the artist that did the rendering did a fine job, I think the scale is wrong. If the hotel is going to be the same size as the one in Florida, it will appear a bit smaller than this rendering makes it seem.

Also, I don’t think there’s enough room to shoehorn the hotel in front of the casino as it appears in this rendering. However, if rotated so that it’s more or less parallel to the strip, then it should fit fine. It just won’t make the same kind of picture.

VegasROX Jan-08-2022

Rendering sucks

They always say to wait until the final product is revealed to make judgement. If it's anything like the pictures, the final project will just add one more tacky looking structure to the strip and block views from both directions.

AlwaysTails Jan-08-2022

Same ownership as  AC?

If this will have the same ownership as the AC hard rock, will the players club be linked like mlife and caesars rewards?

Dave_Miller_DJTB Jan-08-2022

Players clubs

If you believe the rumors, then, yeah. The clubs will be linked.

Currently the AC location is not part of the same club as Florida, but I forget where I heard it, they will be linked, along with the Vegas location, long before the Vegas location gets it’s new name.

Kevin Lewis Jan-08-2022

Remember when...?

all the Injun casinos opened up, in various states (and before anyone gets their panties in a twist, I use "Injun" ironically, because the tribes never actually managed, and in many cases, didn't even own, their first casinos)? These were often in temporary structures (I remember several that were inflatable) and usually nothing more than glorified bingo halls. The tribes got employment for a few dozen members and presumably, some cut of the profits.

Fast forward three decades and now you have the tribes buying up chunks of Vegas. Their revenge on the white man is finally coming to pass. Buy back America!

Question of the Day - 08 January 2022

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