Even among the opulent wonders of the Las Vegas Strip, with its golden hotels, replica Eiffel Towers and pyramids in the desert, a giant, 650-foot tall glass guitar-shape hotel tower might well catch your eye. That is the plan for the newest Sin City casino resort – Hard Rock Las Vegas – and this is what you need to know about it.
Hard Rock Las Vegas is set to open in 2027, as the latest luxury mega casino resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Or technically not, as the Las Vegas Strip isn’t actually in the city of Las Vegas, but in Paradise, Nevada, but anyway…)
The giant construction project is currently underway in the famous American casino resort corridor. It has an estimated price tag of $4.7 billion. The Hard Rock venue is replacing the old Mirage Las Vegas, which opened in the early 1990s as one of the first wave of modern, hyper luxury casino properties in Sin City.
Hard Rock’s High Stakes Gamble Is Heating Up
The construction of a large new Las Vegas casino resort is a significant move at the best of times. Right now, however, things are looking a little more dicey than usual.
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Three years ago, when Hard Rock began its ambitious plans, Las Vegas was on a roll of all-time record visitation and casino resort revenues. But today, the picture isn’t so rosy.
The following factors have contributed to fluctuating revenues for many Sin City hotels and casinos, as well as declining overall visitation to the city:
- Las Vegas being among the most expensive destinations in the world to visit
- More competition from regulated US online casinos and sportsbooks
- Three major casino resorts recently closing for upgrades or to be replaced
- Record-setting pace in 2023 being hard to live up to
Betting on a Market Boom Once Again
Hard Rock purchased the Mirage in 2022. In early 2024 it shut the venerable old casino for good and began knocking it down. During most of that time, Las Vegas was absolutely booming.
2023 set record after record for the city’s gambling operators in terms of overall visitation and revenue. For the first time in its history, the casinos of the Las Vegas Strip reported making more than a billion dollars a month in gambling alone – every month for 16 months.
Big ticket events like the first ever Super Bowl in Nevada, the opening of the Las Vegas Sphere and the debut F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix had the market at an all time high exuberance.
Hard Rock’s operators – ultimately owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida – remain confident that the market will recover, and Las Vegas will return to the roaring trade of just a few years ago.
Hard Rock officials point to several developments as reasons for positivity. Namely, a new baseball stadium currently being built – with a Major League Baseball team to fill it – and the slow-moving but nevertheless progressing Brightline high speed rail link to Southern California. These could attract tens or hundreds of thousands of new visitors to Las Vegas in the coming years.
Operators may also look at the continued success of casinos serving Las Vegas locals. That includes a large brand new Durango Casino Resort in the suburb of Henderson that has performed very well and is already looking at expansion.
What’s In a $4.7 Billion Dollar Casino Resort?
Certainly, “build it and they will come” has proved right for Las Vegas in the past. And Hard Rock’s brand new casino resort isn’t shy on the list of attractions.
As well as the giant guitar-shaped hotel tower with 675 rooms, the operation will have:
- A huge casino floor with 100-plus table games and thousands of slots
- A modern, state-of-the-art sportsbook and sports bar area
- Multiple music venues to fit the Hard Rock theme, including a memorabilia museum
- A huge Hard Rock Cafe eatery as well as dozens of other dining and nightlife options
- A completely redesigned pool and day-club area
- Innovative “experiential opportunities”
Set to open in 2027, the market also has a lot of time to change between now and its opening. The foundations haven’t yet been completed for the new guitar tower, so Hard Rock has a lot of time to refine its plans as Las Vegas itself develops over the coming years.
Whatever the predictions for the future of the Las Vegas Strip, a giant glass guitar hotel tower backed by one of the world’s biggest hospitality brands will surely be an interesting addition to the famed tourist corridor’s skyline.
