Hard Rock (Seminole Tribe) to buy The Mirage for more than $1 billion, will add a guitar-shaped tower - The Nevada Independent
By: Steve Wynn (The Nevada Independent)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
One of the Las Vegas Strip's most iconic properties will soon change ownership after Hard Rock International announced Monday plans to pay $1.075 billion to acquire the operations of The Mirage from MGM Resorts International.
The company, which is owned by Florida's Seminole Indian Tribe, said it would build a guitar-shaped hotel tower at the front of the 77-acre site along the Las Vegas Strip, while the entire property will be renamed Hard Rock Las Vegas.
"When complete, Hard Rock Las Vegas will be a fully integrated resort welcoming meetings, groups, tourists and casino guests from around the world," Hard Rock CEO Jim Allen said in a statement.
Allen, who is also chairman of Seminole Gaming, was unavailable for an interview Monday. A time frame for the development and information about the expansion was not provided. The transaction will require approval from Nevada gaming regulators.
The announcement comes a little more than a month after MGM Resorts International said it wanted to sell the operations of the hotel-casino. The Mirage was the first new Strip resort in 15 years when it was opened by Steve Wynn in 1989, kicking off a building boom in Las Vegas that lasted several decades.
"We view this as a healthy price, well above the roughly $600 million we had expected," Wells Fargo gaming analyst Daniel Politzer said in a research note Monday.
Real estate investment trust VICI Properties, which is in the process of acquiring The Mirage location as part of its $17.2 billion purchase of rival REIT MGM Growth, said it has "the opportunity" to provide up to $1.5 billion for the redevelopment.
VICI and Hard Rock have a similar landlord-tenant relationship with Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati.
"By working collaboratively with MGM Resorts to sell The Mirage operations, we are able to grow our pre-existing partnership with Hard Rock as they expand their gaming operations onto the Las Vegas Strip, the most economically productive street in America," VICI President John Payne said in a statement.
MGM Resorts CEO Bill Hornbuckle, who was part of the team that opened The Mirage, said in November the company wanted to focus on its resorts south of Flamingo Road and was "excited for somebody to come in and make The Mirage their marquee property."
The Seminole Tribe, which operates six of Florida's seven tribal casinos, including Hard Rock Tampa and Hard Rock Hollywood near Fort Lauderdale, is the third out-of-state Indian tribe in the past year to enter the Las Vegas gaming market, but the first to land a property on the Las Vegas Strip.
In March, the gaming arm of Connecticut's Mohegan Indian Tribe opened the casino inside Virgin Hotels Las Vegas along Paradise Road and Harmon Avenue, just east of the Strip.
Southern California's San Manuel Indian Tribe is in the process of buying the off-Strip Palms Casino Resort for $650 million from Red Rock Resorts. The tribe's gaming subsidiary is expected to be approved on Thursday to take over the 700-room hotel-casino on Flamingo Road, roughly a mile west of the Strip, when it appears in front of the Nevada Gaming Commission. The Palms has been closed since March 2020 and is not expected to reopen until next spring.
Global Market Advisors Partner Brendan Bussmann said the emergence of Indian casino companies in Las Vegas "shows the power that tribal nations have as gaming operators and the desire to be in the entertainment and sports capital of the world as commercial operators."
Pedestrians walk near the entrance to The Mirage on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent)
Interest in Las Vegas
Hard Rock lent its name, but never had any operational input, to the ownership of the off-Strip Hard Rock Las Vegas, which went through several management deals since it was opened in 1995. The property was sold in 2018 and is now the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
In March, Hard Rock said it acquired the rights to the name Hard Rock Hotel Casino Las Vegas, along with the property's music memorabilia, signage and merchandise, intellectual property rights for affiliated restaurant and entertainment trademarks, and website domain names.
At the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas in October, Allen said the Seminole Tribe had an interest in landing a location on the Strip.
"We recognize Las Vegas is the entertainment capital," Allen said during a CEO keynote panel at the gaming industry tradeshow and conference. "If the opportunity comes up, yes, we would be interested."
Allen, who is also chairman of Seminole Gaming and Hard Rock Digital, has spent 20 years directing the gaming, hospitality, and entertainment operations for Seminole Tribe - which acquired Hard Rock International in a groundbreaking $1 billion deal in 2007.
Hard Rock, which is a worldwide hospitality and entertainment brand, currently owns or operates 14 casino properties in the U.S., Canada, and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. In 2019, Hard Rock opened a $1.15 billion 638-room Guitar Hotel expansion at the Hollywood, Florida resort.
The Hard Rock name is attached to some 250 non-gaming hotels and restaurants. The company spent $250 million in 2016 to rebrand the NFL's Miami Dolphins home stadium. The venue hosted the NCAA's college football national championship game in January 2021 and Super Bowl LIV in 2020.
"Since the Seminoles purchased Hard Rock, they have continued to accelerate the brand both domestically and internationally," Bussmann said. "Today's announcements further solidifies that effort."
Monday's brief statement did not discuss other development plans for The Mirage, which has 3,000 hotel rooms and suites and several non-gaming attractions, including Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat and the Strip-front artificial volcano feature.
VICI said in a statement it negotiated a 25-year annual lease with Hard Rock for The Mirage that has an initial annual base rent of $90 million. There are three 10-year tenant renewal options and annual escalators to the base rent.
In other news, the Morango Tribe of California is in the process of purchasing the ''The Palms'' in Las Vegas.
California Tribe Buys Palms Casino in Vegas for $650 Million
A third tribe has become involved when the Connecticut-based Mohegan Tribe opened a casino at the new Virgin Hotels Las Vegas earlier this year, it became the first tribe to operate a Las Vegas casino.
virginhotelslv
Tags
Who is online
682 visitors
A major push by two of the biggest gaming tribes in the US. A third tribe has opened casinos in the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas.
good to know that I was staying at an NA casino all the times I stayed at the HR/LV.
Support your local Indian tribe.
I read about this earlier today. It is pretty interesting. It's nice to know that the tribes have increasingly strong economic clout.
This is the third major investment in Las Vegas by different tribes.
I've stayed at the MGM before, the bathroom was nicer that my entire home. I once won over $4K in less than an hour playing video poker in the middle of the night at the Mirage a long time ago.
You were on a roll so to speak.
I guess, because if there was a muffin involved, I sure as hell wouldn't have been in an empty casino at 4am on a friday morning. /s
I'm not sure that the Hard Rock Cafe will appreciate them copying their landmark guitar, even if it is bigger.
Fantastic news! Go Seminoles! Hopefully, we will get one soon (the Shinnecock).
In addition, the San Manual Band of Mission Indians (CA) just purchased ''The Palms'' and the Mohegan are operating the casinos in the Virgin Hotel in LV.
... more than one way to scalp the pilgrims.
LOL
Best comment of the day.
The purchase of these hotels works well with the existing Golf Destination complex owned and operated by the Paiute tribe of southern Nevada.
After all the Paiute Tribe has gone through - this is fabulous news.
In Las Vegas I've only stayed at the MGM Grand and the Parisian, but I've been in both the NYC and Tel Aviv Hard Rock cafes, but perhaps when they had the original owners.
We have a Hard Rock. I went there once to see a show.
Support your local tribe.
I've been to the Hard Rock in Biloxi several times
The Seminole purchased the Hard Rock business in December of 2006.
Butt, butt, the economy..........
Then it was before they owned it. I guess the new guitar sign is to signify both the corporate name and the fact that besides gambling it's also an entertainment centre.
LOLOLOL
The new Hard Rock in Hollywood FL, the hotel is a blue guitar.
One of my SILs did the sprinklers in the Miami HR.
Damned proud of himself.
That's a lot of sprinklers.
Small union crew, guaranteed employment for many months!
Good deal for them. It's really quite the complex.
The golf condo that my brother and I owned was west of Hollywood, in Hollybrook near Hallendale. I spent a lot of time on the Hollywood beach. Saw a doctor there when I had a bad cold, and there was a restaurant there that my father loved, called The Gourmet. I doubt it's still there. The hotel shaped like a guitar makes me think of the one shaped like a sailboat in Dubai.
That's really cool!
That is one big-ass guitar.
And there will be another in Vegas in a few years.
I watched the big guitar being built in Hollywood, FL. It was finished about a few months before we moved here to Ocala.
I was stationed 50 miles from Reno. The MGM there had to shut down and sell when it was discovered they were giving customers recycled drinks.
Recycled drinks? I have an active imagination so I've got something whirring in my head. But I think I shall keep it to myself
If customers left a portion of their beer or mixed drinks, they were transferred to storage containers and reserved. The same thing occurred with soft drinks and OJ.
That's disgusting and definitely a health code violation.
I think that's more disgusting than what is whirring around in my head
🤮
It was at least 25 or 30 years ago that I stayed at the MGM Grand in Vegas (not Reno). I hope they didn't pull that stunt there back then. By the way how can anyone store and then use soft drinks after they've been opened and lost their effervescence? I guess maybe if they mix it with a new unopened bottle/can and serve it right away.
As fast as they served the drink by the hundreds, very few of the stored went flat.
OMG!
I forgot one detail. The recycled drinks were the comp drinks served to people at the slots or tables. Fresh drinks went to paying customers.
Great news, Kavika. Looks like the different Tribes are taking LV by storm, so to speak. With the addition of the guitar tower, and who knows what other types of identifying items could be added as more casinos are bought out, LV will soon have a new face to show the world.
Looking forward to seeing what other Tribes may be adding their names to the rosters in LV.
I think that we'll see more and more Native businesses in LV, Raven.
More on Natives in Las Vegas.
The 2 times I've been to Vegas I stayed at the Bellaggio and the Golden Nugget. I prefer the Golden Nugget because it's there in Old Vegas and you don't have to walk blocks and blocks to get to another casino. I think I gave the Hard Rock some of my money the first time I was there. I know I give them money every time I go to Biloxi
it would be a lot of fun to watch you stagger around fremont st., from about 50-75 yards away...
Afraid I might trip and fall on you? I've been losing weight so I'm not the 300 pound heifer I was
Oh no, time to duck, dev.
I will not be getting involved in this conversation.
too late
I was thinking more along the lines of you interacting with the locals, ...while being impaired.
Are there actually any locals in Vegas?
buskers, pan handlers, pimps, hookers, con artists, street hustlers...
oh those....
starting to recognize potential comedy that could be involved?
oh yeah
here's my favorite HR story. I was out there for a company sales meeting, since the owners were degenerate gamblers and knew some big shot at the HR. we knew there wasn't going to be a sales meeting, since the ownership were also weekend warriors when it came to drinking. it was going to be a fun weekend of gambling, drinking, buffets, and generally making jokes about the other tourists and playing guess who are the LV professionals, lewd joke edition.
after noon breakfast, me and my bff get a call from one of the owner's to hold down the fort at a poolside cabana he had rented while he was going back to his room to change.(be entertained by one of the local female carnal contractors) "feel free to eat and drink whatever we want, blah, blah, blah", just give him a few minutes before he makes his exit. no problem. we throw on our suits, grab our sunglasses, and head downstairs to the pool.
we were only there for a couple minutes, enough time to grab an icy bottle of water, a fresh fruit plate, and stretch out on a couple of lounge chairs to enjoy the scantily clad scenery in the misty shade poolside. all of a sudden, a couple of burly hotel security guards with binoculars hanging around their necks approach and start reprimanding and threatening to eject us for the events that had apparently occurred in the cabana before we arrived, as if it was us that had been participating.
they had admitted to watching the pool area with their binoculars and pointed to the upper stairwell windows at the end of the building. my bff was dumbstruck, but I can turn the type A up to 11 when needed. I had recognized their few moments of hesitation and confusion prior to engaging us, and convinced them that we had just arrived, had done nothing wrong, and where's the pool manager, I needed to speak with him. they backed off after reiterating hotel policy about x rated displays of affection in the HR cabana's and left. less than an hour later, the owner and his hired help showed up back at the cabana and then letting us know to finish our drinks because they were assuming possession of the cabana.
I didn't say anything, but my bff offered up the story about our curious run in with HR security. I could tell by watching the owner and his helper's faces what had undoubtedly occurred earlier and then the helper quickly convinced the owner to go back up to the room for a shower. me and bff ended up hanging out poolside at the cabana the rest of the afternoon and enjoying our neighborhood.
a few years later I would share a room at the HR with this same owner and be called upon to throw out the in-room entertainment he had previously ordered for both of us, ...without my knowledge. after only 4 hours sleep and a pounding head, being polite and tactful was not on the menu that morning. later the owner insisted that it was supposed to be a sales bonus surprise of 2 asian girls, but they were 6 hours late, and had magically turned into a single high mileage bleach blonde that was almost my mother's age. I had told him those card flippers on the strip were bullshit.
another year I met drew carey poolside at the HR and we yucked it up for a bit, but he was in search of weed and I didn't have any (shocking) so he eventually got up and wandered away. all those events happened at the off-strip HR in vegas. a new HR on the strip would be very tempting.
Man...that owner was something else! Nothing says Xmas bonus like a free dose of the clap!
he was a moron whose dad built the business, self financed the sale to him, just so he could watch his kid throw it all away and leave him retired in poverty.
back in the day, it really wasn't a trip to vegas without having to rebuff some advances of seasoned professionals, if you were to wander about alone.
ROFL!!!
Mr G and I went the first time to celebrate our 25th and get married by Elvis. Then we went about 3 years ago with the family. I don't believe anyone got hit on by the local tarts
maybe I was profiled.
Buskers?
...street performers.
Ahhh, ty.
no problem. happy holidays.
Thank you for supporting your local Indians.
The Quapaw Tribe opened a casino outside of Pine Bluff. They got a lot of my money 2 weeks ago
Another donation to your local Indians, we thank you very much and you're now considered a valued member of the alumni and will be receiving Christmas cards from now on.
I would rather have comps....
Yes, I'm sure that you would but presently you're an alumni member level once you drop another $1,000 plus you'll be a Bronze member and eligible for comps.
= free drinks and a room to sleep it off.
The GN has the worse slot machines. They hardly if ever pay out.
You're right. but I like the hotel and the pool
The Tohono 'Oodham Nation in Tucson own the most native run casinos in AZ, which number four and have done quite well. Would not surprise me to see them putting a finger into the Las Vegas gaming pie in the near future.
It certainly is possible that they will.
Here is a great link showing the tribes and the casinos that they operate in AZ.
My thanks for your post. Based on the info you info you provided, it showed that my post above was in error in that there are currently two tribes in AZ with four tribes four casinos statewide. The other tribe besides the Tohono O'oodham is the Gila River Indian Nation. My apologies for the error and my thanks for the correct info.
No worries Doc. I thought the link was very informative giving a lot of info on the tribes, number of casinos and location.
The only Florida Seminoles I actually cheer for.