The Mirage, Las Vegas (Nevada)

The Mirage is a casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by Hard Rock International. The 65-acre property includes a 90,548 sq ft casino and 3,044 rooms.
Golden Nugget, Inc., led by developer Steve Wynn, purchased the future land of the Mirage in 1986. A hotel-casino, the Castaways, occupied a portion of the property and was demolished to make way for the Mirage. The resort opened on November 22, 1989, after two years of construction. It was the world’s most expensive resort, completed at a cost of $630 million. It was also among the world’s largest hotels. The Mirage was the first megaresort to open on the Las Vegas Strip, and its success prompted a building boom in the 1990s for other large resorts along the Strip.
The Mirage opened with several non-traditional attractions for a Las Vegas casino, including animal habitats for dolphins and tigers, and an indoor tropical forest display. Its primary attraction is an artificial volcano that erupts nightly, providing free entertainment in front of the resort. In 1990, the Mirage debuted a magic show by Siegfried & Roy, who performed there for nearly 14 years. The resort also hosted Cirque du Soleil’s first Las Vegas show, Nouvelle Expérience, which opened in 1992. Cirque du Soleil would return to the property in 2006, with the debut of Love, a show featuring music by the Beatles.
Wynn departed the property in 2000, when his company was acquired by MGM Grand. Hard Rock International took over operations in December 2022, becoming the first tribal gaming operator on the Strip. The company intends to rebrand the resort as Hard Rock Las Vegas. The property will receive a complete renovation and expansion which will include a new guitar-shaped hotel tower, taking the place of the volcano attraction. The Mirage will close on July 17, 2024, and is expected to reopen with its new name by May 2027.
A portion of the Mirage property was once occupied by a nightclub known as the Red Rooster. It opened in 1930, on what would become the Las Vegas Strip. The following year, it became the first Strip business to receive a gaming license. It was later purchased by actress Grace Hayes in 1947, and became the Grace Hayes Lodge. It was demolished in 1959, although Hayes continued living in a house located on the property. Another portion of the land was occupied by a hotel-casino known as the Castaways.
Casino owner Steve Wynn had considered building a resort on the Strip to be known as Victoria Bay, but the project was canceled in 1981, due to high costs. Three years later, he thought about building a resort in downtown Las Vegas, on 50 acres of railroad land that would later become the site of the Clark County Government Center. Wynn’s plan to build in downtown were scrapped after the railroad declined his $50 million offer for the land, asking twice that amount.
Wynn eventually purchased the Castaways and nearby acreage in October 1986. Wynn’s purchase included Hayes’ house, which was vacated and demolished along with the Castaways to make way for a new casino resort. Wynn sold his Golden Nugget Atlantic City resort, and used the profits to fund his new project.

Posted by andrea.guagni 5,7 Million on 2024-07-10 17:34:05

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