Posted on: August 15, 2024, 02:13h.
Last updated on: August 15, 2024, 07:09h.
Las Vegas Boulevard was briefly blocked off on Wednesday so that the former entry arch to The Mirage could travel down the street it faced for 34 years. Its destination was the Neon Museum, 5 miles north.
The museum agreed to accept the 30-foot arch from the Seminole Tribe of Florida, owner of the Hard Rock brand, which purchased the operating rights to The Mirage for $1.075 billion from MGM Resorts in 2021.
Also on their way to the museum are the 17-foot sculpture of Siegfried & Roy with one of their tigers, and the 27-foot-long Mirage sign that adorned the volcano’s lagoon.
The Seminole Tribe is remaking the game-changing Steve Wynn property into the second Hard Rock Las Vegas. When it is scheduled to open in 2027, the new casino resort’s standout feature will be a 660-foot guitar-shaped hotel, to be built on the sight of the current volcano show — which was actually built atop the site of the very first casino licensed on the Las Vegas Strip.
The Mirage arch, with its hundreds of twinkling LED lamps, has a spot reserved outdoors in the museum’s esteemed Neon Boneyard.
It will be displayed there alongside signs from the Stardust, Moulin Rouge, Riviera and other relics destroyed by developers more concerned with increasing shareholder profits than preserving Las Vegas’ storied cultural history.
Arching Onward
The Mirage arch is not done travelling yet, though. It will need to relocate once the Neon Museum executes its plan to move from its current location to the Arts District, where it will have nearly triple its current display space, by 2027.
In other unfinished Mirage business, Hard Rock officials have requested that the property’s gaming license remain active during construction.
They applied for a two-year waiver with the Clark County Business License Department on July 11, six days before they shut the property for good, with the possibility of two additional six-month extensions. (The transformation into the Hard Rock is expected to take three years.)
Clark County code requires that gambling licenses be suspended from licensees who don’t meet their requirements for more than 30 consecutive days, unless they can show good cause.
The Clark County Liquor and Gaming Licensing Board is set to review the application at its Aug. 20 meeting.
