Coming Soon to a Vegas Near You!
Some people say New York is the city that never sleeps, but people who say that must have never been to Vegas! While this year has certainly been challenging, there has still been plenty of forward progress on several major, highly-anticipated hotel projects, and now those projects are getting ready to open to the public. Check out the details on these hot new hotels, and start booking your 2021 trips now!
This brand-new, ground-up hotel is the first-ever adults-only (21+) casino in Las Vegas history. It is also the first new resort built on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas since 1980. At 35 stories, it’s also the tallest hotel north of the Strip. But those designations are just the start of the “most” and “biggest” titles that Circa will boast when it officially opens to the public on October 28.
The 1.25-million-square-foot resort will have the world’s largest sportsbook, standing three stories tall with capacity for 1,000 people, stadium seating, and private boxes for groups. The 78-million-pixel screen is also the largest screen in sportsbook history, and even if you don’t want to hang at the book itself, you can hang at the Overhang Bar above it, which gives you a birds-eye-view of the massive screen.
The MEGA BAR on the casino floor will be the longest indoor bar in Nevada at 165 feet, and this is where you can watch all the game day action alongside impressive flair bartending. Vegas Vickie’s is an elevated cocktail lounge/lobby bar that features the iconic neon “Vegas Vickie” sign, which has been completely restored and will be the centerpiece of the bar (and a sure-to-be new selfie hotspot). The elegant rooftop Legacy Club will overlook the city offering panoramic views from atop the 35th floor, and includes a selfie spot of its own: a 10-foot display of 1,000 ounces of gold. They’ll also serve Instagram-worthy cocktails.
But wait, there’s more! The “Garage Mahal” parking garage is a 9-story, state-of-the-art parking garage (really!) designed specifically with ridesharing in mind. Oh, and as for the pool deck, it will be a rooftop, multi-tiered pool amphitheater with six pools and a 125-foot screen. They plan on hosting sports watch parties as well as DJs and live performances.
The resort will also have a vintage-glam steakhouse, Barry’s Downtown Prime; a hip, pan-Asian eatery called 8 East; and more. (If you can really handle any more!)
The first wave of the resort’s 777 rooms—mostly suites—will welcome the first guests on October 28. Circa is a celebration of Las Vegas’s glitz-and-glam past while simultaneously welcoming a bold new era of Sin City, and I can’t wait to see it!
The newly renovated Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, previously the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and now part of the Curio Collection by Hilton, is designed to be a “modern desert resort oasis.” The property has been completely transformed from its previous life as the HRH, with 60,000 square feet of fully-renovated casinos, over five acres of luxe outdoor space and pools, and130,000 square feet of remodeled meeting, event, and convention spaces. “The Joint,” the iconic live music venue inside the old Hard Rock, will remain a live music venue, but it will get a new name.
The property will have over 1500 “chambers” and suites, all designed with a modern desert ambiance and with distinctive touches exclusive to Virgin Hotels, including separate “Dressing Room” and “Lounge” spaces and Virgin’s patented ergonomically designed lounge bed and plenty of in-room tech.
Virgin Hotels Las Vegas has officially announced their opening date on January 15, 2021. With the opening of this hotel, Virgin is launching their upgraded mobile app “Lucy” that allows for a totally “touch-free” experience with mobile keys and controls for lighting, thermostats, and TVs. Guests can also order room service and check out through the app.
This property will also have multiple world-class restaurants, which include some brand-new concepts as well as returning favorites. Chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s namesake restaurant Nobu will return to this location, as will the Morton Group’s celebrated MB Steak. Hakkasan Group will introduce a new social cantina concept called Casa Calavera, while celebrity chef Todd English will welcome Olives (previously located inside the Bellagio) back to Las Vegas. L.A.’s highly lauded Night + Market will open a second location here, and L.A.’s hip Kassi Club will open the Kassi Beach Club. Money, Baby! is a sportsbook-meets-club space with indoor and outdoor patios merging with the pool deck, and promises a unique sports-viewing experience, even by Vegas standards.
Downtown Grand Gallery Tower
Another major transformation for downtown Las Vegas is the addition of the Downtown Grand’s third hotel tower, the 495-room “Gallery Tower”—the first new hotel tower built in downtown Las Vegas in over a decade. As an extension of DTLV’s world-renowned art scene, Downtown Grand has welcoming several artists to create works inside the Gallery Tower as well as throughout the rest of the property. There are original paintings in every room and a series of perspective art installations called “Reflections” on every floor.
The centerpiece of the Gallery Tower’s art program is “Transmigrations,” an interactive, augmented reality art installation exclusively available to guests staying in one of 112 rooms in the “Virtual Pad” collection.
Using an app created by multimedia artist Camila Magrane specifically for the Downtown Grand, guests can view and interact with the AR features of the artwork that is located just outside of the hotel room windows on an in-room iPad. The Downtown Grand is the first hotel in the world to commission an AR mural at this scale.
The Gallery Tower also offers an expanded fitness center and digital kiosks for contactless check-in and checkout, and it is now open and accepting reservations!
The Park MGM (along with its hotel-within-a-hotel, NoMad Las Vegas) is one of the last remaining resorts on the Strip to reopen after closing in March, but it’s safe to say it will have been worth the wait: when it reopens on September 30, Park MGM will officially be the first non-smoking resort on the Strip. MGM tends to lead the pack when it comes to major changes in Strip hotel operations, so let’s hope this is just the first of many to go non-smoking.
We still have about another year before Resorts World opens to the public, but what a spectacle it will be when it does! For years now this has been one of the most anticipated new ground-up hotels in Las Vegas, and while specifics are still pretty mum regarding the dining and entertainment concepts, just seeing it all by the numbers is astounding enough. Check it out:
- 110,000-square-foot casino, including a “sky casino”
- 350,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space
- 14,000-square-foot Entertainment Zone (with sportsbook and live entertainment)
- 5,000-person-capacity theater
- 220,000-square-foot pool complex with 7 pools and an 1,800-square-foot infinity pool
- 75,000-square-foot nightlife and daylife concept
- 100,000-square-foot West Tower LED screen (one of the largest LED building displays in the world)
- 19,000-square-foot East Tower LED screen
- 50-foot diameter video globe displaying over 6,000 square feet of LED content
- 27,000-square-foot world-class spa
- 3,500 guest rooms
Crazy, right?? And the cost of this sprawling resort is currently pegged somewhere around $4.3 billion, making is the most expensive resort in Las Vegas history.
We have MUCH to look forward to in 2021!