Mirage Las Vegas Demolition to Start Next Week, Atrium a Goner

Posted on: July 18, 2024, 10:50h. 

Last updated on: August 7, 2024, 11:01h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

Bulldozers are expected to converge on The Mirage less than 24 hours after the iconic Las Vegas Strip casino-resort closed for good. That’s according to Jim Allen, chair of Hard Rock International, who told reporters before Wednesday’s closing ceremony that “major demolition” would begin by next Wednesday.

The Mirage atrium will be destroyed during the property’s transformation into the second Hard Rock Las Vegas. (Image: reddit/wecax49)

Though most of what will be destroyed at The Mirage will be fixtures, fittings, finishes, and walls, some of its more identifiable structures won’t survive the transformation.

We knew about the Stripside volcano, which will be replaced with a 700-foot guitar-shaped hotel. But yesterday, Allen confirmed that the Atrium — where guests entered The Mirage under a 60-foot-high dome enveloped by an indoor rainforest of palm trees, cascading waterfalls, and thousands of flowers — won’t survive the transition, either.

During the ceremony, Allen mentioned that the renovation will cost between $4-$5 billion.

“We will save certain things,” Allen told reporters. “The villas are safe. We know they’re a part of the amazing legacy of this building. We will certainly update the interiors, but when we thought about the iconic individuals — celebrities and politicians and influencers — that have stayed in the legendary villas, we thought it was very important to keep this heritage.”

As you can see from this early property site plan for the property, The Mirage’s atrium will disappear but the villas will be preserved. (Image: Scott Roeben/Vital Vegas)

Though every Strip resort keeps its guest information confidential, some of the poolside villas’ known occupants have included Quentin Tarantino, Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas, and, most infamously, Michael Jackson.

In fact, the self-crowned King of Pop was staying in one of the villas when he got word that police had raided his Neverland Ranch in California in 2003, upon which he did some of his own demolition.

“When Michael heard that around 70 officers were at the ranch, he exploded,” his brother, Jermaine Jackson, wrote in his 2011 biography “You Are Not Alone.”

He picked up plates of food from the room service cart and hurled them at the walls, swiped two lamps, pushed over a sculpture, turned over a coffee table, and sent all sorts of objects flying from table tops,” Jackson wrote. “His room looked like a typhoon had hit it and my immediate thought was that the cops had been there, too.”

Allen also mentioned “a special little area” inside the new Hard Rock Las Vegas, “where people will come to see the legacy of the property,” but he wouldn’t get into any specifics.