Hard Rock Las Vegas tops off Guitar Hotel in major strip redevelopment milestone

Hard Rock International marked a major construction milestone Friday with a topping-off ceremony for its highly anticipated Guitar Hotel on the Las Vegas strip.

The event commemorated the placement of the final structural beam atop the guitar-shaped tower, which will rise more than 700 feet and feature 650 suites. The project, led by Seminole Gaming and Hard Rock, is slated for completion in 2027 with an estimated cost between $4 billion and $5 billion.

Hard Rock, owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, acquired the former The Mirage from MGM Resorts International for $1 billion in December 2022. The iconic 3,000-room resort closed in July 2024 to make way for a full-scale redevelopment aligned with the Hard Rock brand.

“This event is in honor of our construction partners at PENTA and McCarthy and the thousands of hardworking men and women on our construction team,” said Jim Allen, CEO of Seminole Gaming & Chairman of Hard Rock International.

Attendees included Hard Rock executives, members of the Seminole Tribal Council, construction partners from The PENTA Building Group and McCarthy Building Companies, as well as Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom.

“Topping out this project represents far more than a construction milestone,” said Jeff Walker, Vice President of Construction at The PENTA Building Group. ”It marks a defining moment in reshaping the Las Vegas skyline and introducing a new city icon.”

Construction began in summer 2024 and has already employed more than 5,000 workers. The completed resort will feature over 3,700 hotel rooms, including the renovated Mirage tower, expanded gaming space totaling approximately 175,000 square feet, and more than 200,000 square feet dedicated to meetings and conventions. Plans also include redesigned pools, new dining and retail options, and a workforce of about 6,000 employees.

Rising construction costs along the Strip are expected to limit major new developments for years, potentially making this project one of the last of its kind in the near term.

“I just don’t think it pencils economically,” Bill Lerner, Managing Director at CBRE and founder of Union Gaming, told commercial real estate executives during a luncheon at The Orleans. “The pool of capital that you actually need to support ground-up development on the Las Vegas Strip corridor, I don’t think is affordable. Lenders aren’t comfortable underwriting new development on the Strip corridor.”

“Fontainebleau is struggling for numerous reasons, including not having a feeder property of note,” Lerner added. “It’s improving, but the comps are very difficult. The cost of capital to do it is way too high, and the development cost to build a competitive property is prohibitive.”

Future investment in Las Vegas is expected to focus on renovations and upgrades to existing resorts rather than new construction.