Mirage is just weeks away from closing its doors, opening way for 3-year transformation to begin

LAS VEGAS — The Mirage’s expiration date officially has come into view: July 17, 2024.

The landmark Strip resort is shutting down that day, to be remade as Hard Rock Las Vegas by spring of 2027. Resort President Joe Lupo informed the hotel’s staff in a town hall-style meeting this month.

Prior to that meeting, Lupo said some 3,300 hotel employees would be laid off, including 140 Day One employees.

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

Lupo said the hotel will close entirely on July 17, and reopen by the end of May 2027. It is to be a full shutdown and reopening, not a “phased-in” restart. Plans are still in the rendering stage, but will include 25 restaurants (five at the new hotel tower near the Strip) and a 5,000-seat theater.

Owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Hard Rock International purchased The Mirage from MGM Resorts International in December 2022, spending more than $1 billion.

The signature design of the new Hard Rock will be a 660-foot-tall hotel tower shaped as guitars standing back-to-back. It is a similar design to Seminole Hard Rock Hotel’s in Hollywood, Florida, Orlando. As with that resort’s design, the Strip structure would feature reflective, floor-to-ceiling glass panes.

The tower will be built on the site of Mirage’s iconic volcano, a popular no-charge feature since the hotel opened in 1989. The volcano has been snuffed out and is not part of Hard Rock’s plans.

Hard Rock is shutting down Cirque du Soleil-Beatles production “Love” on July 7, ending an 18-year run. That theater, formerly the Siegfried &Roy theater, is to be taken apart in the renovation.

The 1,300-seat Mirage Theater will remain intact. Headlining magician Shin Lim had previously announced his show at Mirage Theater would extend through September. His final show is tentatively July 14, He is expected to reopen at Palazzo Theater by the end of the year.

Siegfried &Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat, a popular attraction at The Mirage for more than three decades, closed in November 2022.

Elaine Wynn was married to resort pioneer and Mirage founder Steve Wynn at the time of the hotel’s opening. She spoke of the hotel in an interview in December 2022.

“I remember, initially, when Steve was designing it, he wanted to have The Mirage kind of front-up, right onto the Strip,” Wynn said. “And I said, ‘If you bring it close to the Strip, people aren’t going to appreciate the towers.”

The design created a vast expanse between the hotel’s main entrance and the Strip.

“We wondered, what is going to be the thing that separates the sidewalk from the porte cochere?” Wynn said. “It was purely Steve’s vision, the volcano. He said, ‘Let’s do a volcano that sets off fire in the sky!’”

An aquatic feature was another of The Mirage’s signature design effects, a 20,000-gallon, 50-foot-long aquarium of exotic fish looming behind the front desk. This fancy tank was to tantalize guests checking into the hotel.

“We always thought when people checked into these places, and they had to wait in line, how tough it would be for them to be patient to have to just stand there,” Wynn said. “But when we put in the fish tank, it was like they were mesmerized. They did not mind standing there and waiting because they were so busy observing all the beautiful tropical fish.”

Wynn continued, “The Mirage was a wonderful experiment that set the tone for how we did projects, and how we moved on from there … It was like we were, for the first time, creating the coloring book for a megaresort.”

The 660–foot tall all-suite tower, with a podium below it, received planning approval from Clark County officials during a March 2023 meeting. The proposed tower is designed to resemble back-to-back guitars with “brightly lit strings” and would feature floor-to-ceiling glass panes, Hard Rock attorneys told county officials in planning documents at the time.

Hard Rock CEO Jim Allen told gaming regulators in December 2022 that the property would not close for renovations. And last month, when management announced the “Love” closure, it was not planned.

Other indoor plans call for an expansion of the live theater and ballroom space and a low-rise expansion along the south side of the property.