With all the news about the mergers and acquisitions of Caesars and MGM, it got me curious about what the next big casino in Las Vegas is going to be? What say the LVA answer people?
It won't be a Caesars or MGM Resorts property, that's for sure. And Fertitta Entertainment indefinitely tabled its plans for a megaresort on a 36-acre parcel it owns on the Strip at Harmon Avenue.
Meanwhile, Station Casinos hasn't announced which new casino it plans to start working on from its extensive land bank around the valley, though the company has hinted it will probably be Inspirada, across I-15 and a bit south of Southern Highlands in Henderson. That's at least several years away if Station pulls the trigger on the project.
Boyd recently opened Cadence Crossing, which takes them out of the running for the time being.
Anthony Marnell III, the original developer of M Resort, is planning a hotel-casino directly across the street from M, but doesn't expect to break ground on it for three to five years as he waits for the population base to grow large enough to compete with M, which he sold to Penn Entertainment in 2010.
So those are all the new casinos that aren't happening in the foreseeable future.
The one that is -- drum roll, please -- isn't a surprise. It's the Hard Rock Las Vegas taking over the Mirage site right at center Strip. This big bad boy will cost somewhere between $4 billion and $5 billion by the time it opens as an entirely new megaresort -- in the next 16-18 months. The latest prediction during Hard Rock's first-quarter earnings call last month was "fourth quarter 2027, which means anytime between October 1 and December 31 of next year.
It's going to be a very big deal.
