Plans include a 4,000-room hotel and casino, three 400-room boutique hotels, 1,650 condos, and 550,000 square feet of retail, dining and entertainment.
The “CityCenter Project,” as MGM officials call it, will be located on the 66-acre site between Belaggio and Monte Carlo on the Las Vegas Strip. The Boardwalk Hotel now occupies part of this area.
The project will be developed in phases. The first phase, which will begin in 2010, is expected to create more than 7,000 construction jobs and 12,000 permanent positions. This will be the greatest employment opportunity in Las Vegas history.
For comparison, “Project CityCenter” is the size of New York City’s Rockefeller Center, SoHo, and Times Square combined.
The history of Las Vegas began a hundred years ago, with a parcel auction. With MGM Mirage laying the cards for its future project, the next question that arises is: How long will it take before a competitor comes up with a similar scheme?
“We hope they will, but I doubt it,” says Jim Murren, president and chief financial officer of MGM Mirage. Having the idea is one thing. It is much more important to have access to this type of capital outlay and proper ownership. Today, an acre on the Las Vegas Strip is valued at $ 20 million. The estimated cost of the project is $ 4 billion.
The “CityCenter Project” appears to have ended the construction of themed resorts in Las Vegas and ushered in a new era in Sin City’s history. It is now clear that Las Vegas is becoming a major urban center in the US “It is changing lifestyles,” said MGM Mirage President and CEO Terry Lanni.
Over the next 18 months, MGM Mirage will search the world for a master architect, as well as residential and hotel partners.