Hard Rock’s Guitar Hotel Takes Shape on Ashes of Mirage Volcano Over Las Vegas Strip

Posted on: October 14, 2025, 05:21h. 

Last updated on: October 14, 2025, 05:39h.

The shape of the bottom of an electric guitar is now clearly recognizable as construction of the future Hard Rock’s Guitar Hotel rises above the Las Vegas Strip.

Hard Rock International’s Guitar Hotel, which will eventually include 36 stories, strikes a defiant chord of optimism against the tourism downturn affecting surrounding Las Vegas Strip properties. (Image: Shawn Coomer/Miles to Memories Vegas)

This week, workers could be seen installing window panes on the structure, which is steadily climbing toward its planned 660-foot height from a foundation poured where the Mirage’s legendary volcano once fake-erupted.

The Guitar Hotel Las Vegas, the centerpiece of the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s ambitious rebrand of the former Mirage into the second Las Vegas Hard Rock casino hotel, will boast 675 hotel rooms. (Image: Hard Rock International)

The giant guitar strikes a defiant chord of optimism against the economic strife afflicting neighboring properties.

With Strip visitation plunging 8% year-over-year in Q2 2025, several expansions and renovations have faced delays or cancellations. (Gaming revenue declined around 2% on average across Q2 months.)

Yet the Seminole Tribe of Florida reportedly pumped an additional 7% into the $4.3 billion overhaul, to amp up entertainment features including expanded pools and a revamped casino floor.

A sign from Las Vegas’ past upstages the symbol of its future. (Image: Shawn Coomer/Miles to Memories Vegas)

The site, which the tribe acquired for $1.075 billion in late 2022, has been a hive of activity since the Mirage’s emotional farewell on July 17, 2024. Demolition crews razed the volcano lagoon within hours, paving the way for Penta Building Group to lay foundations by early 2025.

Recent tweaks — including the scrapping of a southern pedestrian bridge to Harrah’s — have sparked whispers of cost-cutting.

However, a Hard Rock spokesperson dismissed the chatter in June, calling the adjustments “strategic refinements” to enhance guest flow. (A northern bridge to the Venetian remains in the cards.)

The Hard Rock Casino and Guitar Hotel Las Vegas is reportedly on schedule to open by the early fourth quarter of 2027. It will feature approximately 3,675 hotel rooms, 175,000 square feet of gaming space, several pools, two spas, live entertainment venues, and a wide array of restaurants, lounges and retail stores.