Inside Seminole Hard Rock’s $1.5B expansion

Centerpiece is 450-foot, guitar-shaped tower

The Seminole Tribe of Florida and Seminole Gaming unveiled the $1.5 billion expansion of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood on Wednesday.

The project will be centered around a giant guitar-shaped, 450-foot tower. The casino will double in size and have 3,267 slot machines, 178 table games and a new 18,000-square-foot poker room, according to a press release. Hard Rock’s expansion will also include 60,000 square feet of new retail and restaurant space and a $100 million, 7,000-seat concert venue. It’s slated to open in mid-2019 ahead of the Super Bowl in 2020.

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The development will add 806 guestrooms and suites, most of which will be in the guitar-shaped tower, a seven-story pool tower, restaurants, lounges, a business center and a 41,000-square-foot spa. A 10-acre pool complex with private villas and waterfalls will be built at the base of the main building.

A temporary performance hall will become a 37,000-square-foot ballroom, tripling the current meeting space and bringing the total to 141,000 square feet.

James F. Allen, CEO of Seminole Gaming and Chairman of Hard Rock International, worked with Las Vegas-based Klai Juba Wald Architects and other firms on the expansion. – Katherine Kallergis