Neon Diary – The Mirage, an iconic Las Vegas Strip resort, closes its doors after 35 transformative years, marking the end of an era in luxury and innovation.
Nearly 35 years after its initial transformation of the Las Vegas Strip, the Mirage closed its doors on Wednesday afternoon. The property is set to undergo a three-year transformation, emerging as the Hard Rock with a new guitar-shaped hotel tower replacing the Mirage’s iconic volcano.
Contrary to its name, the Mirage left an enduring mark on the Las Vegas Strip by making luxury accessible to all and elevating Las Vegas’s profile among upscale leisure and business travelers. Conceived by casino mogul Steve Wynn, the Mirage featured lush gardens, playful dolphins, and extravagant shows like Siegfried and Roy, demonstrating that a resort on the Strip could offer much more than just gambling.
“It raised the competitive bar for Las Vegas with its multifaceted hotel assets that were designed to attract all types of visitors — domestic and international visitors, trade shows and convention/meeting attendees, and those wanting to partake in special events and new entertainment and dining opportunities,” said former Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority boss Rossi Ralenkotter. “It became the model throughout the destination.”
“This has resulted in an opportunity to attract visitors from all market segments,” said Ralenkotter, whose dad helped open the Mirage and worked in its dice pit for the next 20 years. “The high-quality and state-of-the-art conference facilities added to the success and growth of the meetings markets throughout Las Vegas.”
Tim Dahlberg, who grew up in small-town Las Vegas before covering the city as a reporter when the Mirage opened, said, “People thought Wynn was a bit nuts, especially when it became known the resort would need to win $1 million a day to make money.”
Dahlberg said he could vouch for Wynn’s sanity after going to the Mirage two days after it opened and finding it choked with people as if it were still opening night.
“It was unlike any property Las Vegas had ever seen, and everyone was just wowed by it all,” Dahlberg said.
The Mirage, which opened in 1989 with a staggering price tag of $630 million (equivalent to $1.6 billion), was an immediate success. Its influence is evident in the larger and more luxurious resorts that followed. Modern Las Vegas hotels, meeting spaces, and restaurants are significantly more advanced than what existed before the Mirage, which ignited a 20-year boom in casino development.
“The city is always on the move and just when it seems ready to stall, something else pushes it forward,” said Dahlberg, who still covers Las Vegas as publisher of a monthly for upscale seniors. “This was the case when Caesars opened in 1967, the International opened in 1969, and it was when the Mirage opened two decades later.”
The Mirage gradually shut down over the past week, with slot machines being turned off and the casino floor becoming increasingly dim. Behind the hotel registration desk, an empty space replaced the giant aquarium that once entertained guests before the era of cell phones. On Wednesday, tourists roamed the property while hotel executives honored the employees and the legacy of the Mirage.
“When Steve and Elaine Wynn opened the Mirage in December of 1989, it changed not just Las Vegas, but it changed the way people look at gaming. It became a true destination,” Hard Rock International Chairman Jim Allen told CNBC.
