The Mirage closes, marking a new era of growth for Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — In its last hours Wednesday morning, the final farewells took place at The Mirage during a special ceremony attended by hotel executives, Las Vegas trailblazers, and hundreds of its remaining 3,000 employees.

The podium, positioned in the same spot Steve Wynn welcomed the first guests at nearly three and a half decades ago, became a sounding board for memories of the resort. Elaine Wynn, who co-founded the resort with her former husband Steve Wynn, called it a poignant moment.

“Up until this time this place was steeped in a desert-themed culture. We had the Sands, the Sahara, the Dunes, and the Desert Inn, and Steve always believed in creating what he referred to as dynamic tension. What can we do to make the people go wow?” Wynn said at the podium Wednesday morning. “It gave us an opportunity to let the imagination run wild, and his imagination really did run wild.”

When The Mirage opened on Nov. 22, 1989, it introduced the world to a newer, shinier Las Vegas resort where a tropical paradise with magical gardens and white tigers, an exploding volcano, and dolphins in the backyard could co-exist with a casino. A destination, not just a slot machine haven, was the vision.

“Dolphins in the backyard, which by the way, (Steve Wynn) really wanted to put at our home, and I explained to him, ‘Steve, I don’t know a thing about dolphins,’” Wynn said with a laugh. “We hand over to you, sort of spiritually and symbolically, what I think is the most precious piece of real estate, short of the Hoover Dam in the state of Nevada.”

Alan Feldman, a former spokesperson for The Mirage, said there were plenty of doubters until they saw the resort was profitable from its first day.

“It would forever change Las Vegas,” he said. “It’s hard to believe 34 years ago a group of dreamers gathered in this very spot to introduce to the world an audacious idea.”

“The secret sauce underpinning the Mirage’s success was always its people,” he said.

Among the guests at the ceremony were 137 employees who had been with the Mirage from its very first day. The Mirage’s more than 3,000 employees were offered severance packages totaling $80 million.

Dorla Amore and Carrie Bradshaw, cocktail waitresses, are walking away with decades of memories. Both began their jobs at the property on the first day.

“I was 23, and I just– it was exciting. It was new,” Bradshaw said, standing arm-in-arm with her longtime friend and coworker under the hotel’s porte cochere. “Everybody thought it was a pass-through job. Nobody thought that they’d be there making a life out of it.”

“Steve Wynn built this beautiful property, and the employees brought it to life,” Amore said. “Closing this building, this resort that we’ve made home for so many years, is very emotional.”

Former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones Blackhurst, the city’s first woman mayor, said The Mirage made the city stand up and take notice.

“Before then it’s almost like we were blind. We had our little area on the Las Vegas Strip. We didn’t realize how grown up, how magnificent, how visionary we could be,” she said.

The Mirage’s success ushered in a period of implosions when older casino properties were turned to dust to make way for more mega-resorts starting in the early 90s.

Hard Rock International purchased the property in 2022 with intentions to reimagine the hotel – which includes the construction of a nearly 700-foot tall guitar-shaped guest room tower where the current volcano and lagoon stand – by mid to late 2027, according to Hard Rock International Chairman Jim Allen.

The new resort already achieved another milestone. The Florida-based Seminole Tribe owns Hard Rock International making it the first Native American-owned casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

“We’re now ushering in a new era where indigenous nations are our partners who are joining us on the Las Vegas Strip. I am sure they will have a lot to teach us about how to become even grander and greater and more hospitable,” Jones Blackhurst said.

Allen said more details about the remodel and other construction will come by the beginning of next year. He adds that construction vehicles move onto the property on Thursday and that a “major construction site” will be seen by next week.

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