Landmark Las Vegas Casino Closing, Demolition Scheduled for This Year

 The Mirage hotel is closing in July, ending a 34-year run as a landmark on the Las Vegas Strip.

Hard Rock International said the hotel, which it bought in 2022, will close July 17, according to ABC.

The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Guitar Hotel Las Vegas will take the place of The Mirage.

“The property will be reimagined and developed into a new integrated resort featuring a nearly 700 ft. guitar-shaped hotel prominently in the center of the famous Las Vegas Strip,” the company said, noting that the new hotel is scheduled for opening in 2027.

The signature design of the new Hard Rock Las Vegas will be a 660-foot-tall hotel tower shaped as guitars, which will be built on the site of Mirage’s iconic volcano that has been a popular attraction since the hotel opened in 1989.
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— Las Vegas Review-Journal (@reviewjournal) May 15, 2024

“We’d like to thank the Las Vegas community and team members for warmly welcoming Hard Rock after enjoying 34 years at The Mirage,” Chairman of Hard Rock International Jim Allen said.

In April, the Strip lost another icon when The Tropicana Las Vegas closed just before its 67th anniversary. The Tropicana is supposed to be the site of a baseball stadium that will be the future home of the Oakland A’s.

END OF AN ERA: The iconic Mirage hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip will shut its doors this summer, the end of an era for a property credited with helping transform Sin City into an ultra-luxury resort destination. https://t.co/Xbrj2IL5XT pic.twitter.com/c3H83SrdxW

— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) May 15, 2024

The Mirage was opened in 1989 by casino mogul Steve Wynn, according to CNN.

MGM Resorts bought the hotel from Wynn in 2000. In 2022, Hard Rock International bought the property for over $1 billion.

The closing will cost more than 3,000 people their jobs, according to the Associated Press.

The Culinary and Bartenders Union accounts for about 1,700 workers, the Los Angeles Times reported. Union members will have a choice between taking a severance package of $2,000 for every year of service plus six months of pension and health benefits or a lower payout that preserves seniority rights for new jobs in the new hotel.

“Culinary Union members at The Mirage have a strong union contract, ensuring that workers are protected, even as the property closes its doors entirely for three years from July 2024 – May 2027,” said Ted Pappageorge, Culinary Union secretary-treasurer.

The new hotel expects to hire almost 7,000 people.

Resort President Joe Lupo told the staff Wednesday about the closing, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“We really are encouraged about not only the future of Las Vegas, but how Hard Rock and Seminole Tribe can play a role in helping to develop that and grow the market,” Lupo said. The Seminole Tribe owns Hard Rock International.

“But today is a tough day for a lot of people. Our priority is the well-being of those individuals,” he said.