Hard Rock paying $1B for Mirage Hotel and Casino

Company planning on building guitar-shaped hotel on Vegas Strip

Hard Rock International CEO Jim Allen and The Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas (Getty)
Hard Rock International CEO Jim Allen and The Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas (Getty)

You’ll no longer have to go to South Florida to rock out in a guitar-shaped hotel.

Hard Rock International on Tuesday announced it is acquiring the operations of The Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas from MGM Resorts International. The company said in a release on the deal it intends to build a guitar-shaped hotel along the Las Vegas Strip.

The cost of the operating assets of the Mirage is nearly $1.1 billion, subject to working capital adjustments. Once the deal is closed, Hard Rock will sign a long-term lease with Vici Properties, which will soon own the Mirage’s real estate property.

Hard Rock previously bought the licensing and naming rights at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas in May 2020. At the time, the company said it was on the lookout opportunities to bring the brand to the area.

“We are honored to welcome The Mirage’s 3,500 team members to the Hard Rock family,” Hard Rock chairman Jim Allen said in a statement. “When complete, Hard Rock Las Vegas will be a fully integrated resort welcoming meetings, groups, tourists and casino guests from around the world to its nearly 80 acre center-Strip location.”

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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The company’s plans for the instrument-shaped hotel to hit the Strip will likely mimic the guitar-shaped Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The hotel, which cost $1.5 billion to complete and opened in October 2019, features more than 600 guest rooms and suites and stands 450 feet tall.

Vici in August agreed to buy fellow REIT MGM Growth Properties in a deal valuing the latter at $17.2 billion. The company will assume about $5.7 billion of debt in the deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2022, while MGM Growth Properties will receive nearly $4.4 billion in cash.

MGM Growth’s other holdings include the Excalibur and Luxor casinos on the Vegas Strip, as well as the Borgata in Atlantic City and Yonkers Raceway & Empire City Casino in Yonkers, New York.

Vegas properties are moving for big bucks again as the entertainment-driven city emerges from the pandemic.

Several months ago, Blackstone agreed to sell The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas for more than $5.6 billion. The company will make almost $4.1 billion in profit from the sale. MGM Resorts International is picking up operations for about $1.6 billion, while a three-company partnership is buying the property.