Mirage Volcano Can Be Replaced with Hard Rock Guitar Tower on Las Vegas Strip
Posted on: March 22, 2023, 03:12h.
Last updated on: March 23, 2023, 02:58h.
A radical change to the Las Vegas Strip skyline has cleared its final hurdle. At a zoning meeting on Wednesday, Clark County commissioners unanimously approved plans for Hard Rock International to replace the beloved volcano at the Mirage with a 36-story hotel tower shaped like a guitar.
![Hard Rock guitar tower](https://www.casino.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/hard-rock-1.webp)
The attention magnet, similar to one built by the Hard Rock at its Hollywood, Fla. location, will feature six light beams that shoot 20K feet into the sky, virtually extending the strings on the guitar’s cropped neck. Scheduled to debut in 2025, the 600-room tower will place all adjacent Strip resorts in its shadow.
Hard Rock International, owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, purchased the operating rights to The Mirage from MGM Resorts International for $1.1B in a cash deal that closed late in 2022. Casino landlord Vici Properties, which continues to own the land, stated that Hard Rock agreed to an initial annual rent of $90M.
Under the terms of the deal, MGM gets to retain The Mirage name and brand, licensing it to Hard Rock royalty-free for a maximum of three years during the transition. The Seminole Tribe intends to operate The Mirage until 2024, fully debuting its Hard Rock brand and the guitar tower a year later.
In December 2022, executives first presented their plans. In addition to the new tower, these include renovating the entire Mirage, including its existing 3,044 hotel rooms. The resort will also have a new theater with nearly 3,000 seats and new restaurants, shops, and pools.
A construction time line is scheduled to be released later this year.
![](https://www.casino.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/tripsavvy.jpg)
Historic Karma
Though many view the volcano’s demolition as an affront to Las Vegas history, the free attraction was part of a long line of historic indignities perpetrated on the same site.
To build the volcano, the last remaining Las Vegas Strip residence — a house owned by former vaudevillian actress Grace Hayes — had to be demolished in 1987, along with a Mobil station built on the site of the Red Rooster, which in 1931, which became the first licensed casino to operate on the future Las Vegas Strip.
In other words, the Hard Rock’s guitar tower will rise from the ashes of the exact site where the Las Vegas Strip was founded.
Related News Articles
Twitter Users Share Mirage Las Vegas Memories in Emotional Goodbye
Las Vegas Casino Cyberattacks: A Timeline
Most Popular
LOST VEGAS: The Foster Brooks Robot at MGM Grand
Bally’s Sets Date for Tropicana Las Vegas Implosion & Party
Most Commented
-
VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: You Don’t Have to Pay Resort Fees
August 2, 2024 — 16 Comments— -
VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Elvis Was a Straight-Up Racist
August 9, 2024 — 11 Comments— -
ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR: Vegas Casino Buffet Stunt in Poor Taste Goes Viral
August 16, 2024 — 7 Comments— -
VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: The Strip Tried Appealing to Families and Failed
August 23, 2024 — 7 Comments—
Last Comment ( 1 )
Just for fun hr should keep the volcano adding a jerry great balls china type hotels above the flames and having a plexie glass ice cubes looking walk way on the water to a Hard Rock Cafe that a boat attraction is pulled by a lockness and splashing guitar playing Bigfoot monsters to amuse with a half sided guitar hotel on its side on amount of ace spade clovers and hearts hr shaped rooms