It’s easy to get distracted by all the new construction happening on The Strip. What with the $7 billion CityCenter rising dramatically near Bellagio, Wynn Las Vegas’s encore called Encore nearing its topping off, Palazzo ready to open next month, and more the existing hotel casinos seem to get overshadowed in terms of development and column inches.
But that doesn’t mean nothing is happening at the major resorts on The Strip. A PR person once told me that if there isn’t some sort of construction happening the hotel is considered to be behind the times so all up and down The Strip there are project both big and small that are worth noting.
Let’s start this week by updating what is happening at the hotels on the South Strip, which for the record extends from Mandalay Bay up to roughly Harmon Avenue.
At Mandalay Bay, they completed a major renovation to their beach area over the summer, adding some upscale amenities plus a three-story restaurant/bar/casino area overlooking the whole thing. They have also been upgrading some of their accommodations. The “Gold Rooms” feature fancier, modern furnishings, flat panel televisions, and more designed to compete with the offerings at the new resorts. They have also recently opened a new bar/lounge in the center of the casino and are moving forward with plans to build a condo-hotel tower at the front of the property along Las Vegas Boulevard.
Next door, Luxor has seen some dramatic changes as the bulk of the Egyptian detail gets stripped away and replaced by a more modern look and feel. Purists, including myself, whine that it has removed the kitschy fun in favor of the bland upscale that everyone else is doing but even I have to admit that the new stuff looks nice. There are several new nightclubs and bars already open with more on the way plus plans for new restaurants, room renovations, and more.
Excalibur is soldiering along as one of the few middle-market hotels remaining on The Strip, but even they are trying to move things in an up-market direction. Rooms are being renovated to remove the tacky and worn King Arthur detail, replacing it with sleek and stylish furnishings plus the omnipresent flat panel televisions. A newly revamped pool area opened over the summer and there is a new restaurant called Dick’s Last Resort luring in the tourists.
The Tropicana is biding its time until construction begins next year on a multi-billion dollar overhaul that will involve the demolition and rebuilding of everything but the two main hotel towers. When complete the resort will have some 10,000 rooms, an all-new casino, new restaurants, nightclubs, and more.
There hasn’t been a lot of big news coming out of New York-New York or MGM Grand, although the latter has revamped a few of its bars and is always adding new restaurants. Other than that these hotels remain pretty much the same as they were last year.
Monte Carlo is also mostly the same although they did just open a new restaurant/bar concept called Diablo’s Cantina, a Strip-facing party spot designed to infuse the rather staid property with some new blood.
In future columns I’ll take a look at what is happening on the Center and North Strip.
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