Coming Soon to Las Vegas
Circa
The Stevens brothers who own The D and Golden Gate are building Downtown Las Vegas’ first new-from-the-ground-up casino in decades. It will be called Circa and it will have 777 rooms in a 44-story tower, the tallest in Downtown. Features include the longest outdoor bar along Fremont Street, five restaurants, what is being billed as the world’s largest sportsbook, six year-round pools with an amphitheater and a giant screen showing sporting events, a two-story casino with 1,350 slot machines and 49 table games, and a place for cars and other transportation they are dubbing the Garage Mahal. It’ll also feature the return of Vegas Vickie, the neon cowgirl that was atop the Girls of Glitter Gulch strip club for decades. She’ll be installed in the hotel’s lobby. The Downtown Vegas property is under construction at the corner of Fremont and Main and should open by the end of 2020. For more information, visit the Circa Resort & Casino page.
Raiders Stadium
The Raiders NFL team are moving from Oakland to Las Vegas for the 2020 season. A new stadium is being built on a plot of land just west of Mandalay Bay (on the other side of I-15. Apparently this is a big deal but I don’t really understand why. It’s just a bunch of guys bouncing an orange ball up and down. Wait… that’s football, right?
Las Vegas Convention Center Expansion
A $2.5 billion overhaul and expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center has been approved that will completely revamp the inside and outside of the facility, add new convention halls at the back of the property that once was home to The Riviera, add new transportation hubs including an underground people mover from Elon Musk’s company, green spaces, and a street of retail and entertainment outlets. The first phase is expected to open in 2020.
Virgin Hotel Las Vegas
The former Hard Rock is getting a big makeover and a new name now that billionaire Richard Branson and partners have bought the place. They will be turning it into a Virgin branded resort with new rooms, a new casino, new restaurants and clubs, and more. The Hard Rock closes in February of 2020 and the new Virgin is expected to debut by New Year’s Eve 2020.
Las Vegas Hilton at Resorts World
The Las Vegas Hilton is returning, sort of. The hotelier has announced a deal with the upcoming Resorts World project on The Strip to include three of their brands in the project. The hotel is now officially dubbed as the Las Vegas Hilton at Resorts World and will include 1,700 rooms designated as the Hilton, 1,500 as the Conrad, and 300 as luxury brand LXR. They will all be in the same tower, much like the Mandalay Bay/Four Seasons split, but will have their own check in, design, and amenities. The resort is due to open in summer of 2021 and will have a 110,00 square-foot casino, a 5,000-seat theater (rumored to be hosting a Celine Dion comeback), a 220,000-square-foot pool and recreation area with seven pools, restaurants, shopping, and more. While the original idea was to have an Asian theme, complete with a giant panda exhibit and a replica of the great wall of China, all of that has been dropped. The design will have Asian touches but no explicit theme other than luxury. It is expected to open in the summer of 2021.
The Sphere
The company that runs Venetian and Palazzo is teaming with Madison Square Garden to build a new performance venue in Vegas and its a doozy. The sphere shaped concert hall will stand 360 feet tall and have 18,000 seats at full capacity. It will be packed with technology that they say will make it the most advanced performance space in the world. It’s going in behind Palazzo along Sands Blvd. near Koval and will come with a new stop on the Las Vegas Monorail line. It should be open by 2021.
The Drew
Yes, something is finally happening with the big blue elephant on the North end of The Strip. Formerly known as The Fontainebleau, the half-finished hotel went bankrupt in 2008 and has been sitting empty ever since. It will finally be completed by 2022 and will include a Drew hotel, an Edition from Marriott hotel, and a JW Marriott taking up the roughly 3,900 rooms. There will be a big casino, restaurants, a showroom, shopping, and all of the other stuff you expect with a major Vegas resort.
Dream Las Vegas
The South Strip is going to get some new life with the planned addition of a new hotel just south of Mandalay Bay. Dream Hotel Group has luxury hotels in Los Angeles, Nashville, NYC, and Miami and is now coming to Vegas with a 450-room property that will have multiple restaurants and nightlife venues, a rooftop pool and lounge, a spa and fitness center, and meeting space. It’ll also, apparently, have a casino although the press release about the hotel offers no details and barely even mentions it saying, “additional bar and lounge concepts on the gaming floor.” That’s the only nod to the idea that there will be gambling at the hotel. Dream will be going on a 5 acre plot of land on The Strip near Russell Road, next door to the Harley Davidson store and just feet from the iconic Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign. Dream Las Vegas is slated to start construction later this year and open in 2023.