The construction of Hard Rock’s Guitar Hotel in Las Vegas reached a visible milestone as crews installed the final structural beam atop the tower, signaling the completion of its main framework. The ceremony, held Friday, May 1, marked progress on one of the most closely watched developments on the Strip, built on the former Mirage site.

Hard Rock International and Seminole Gaming are leading the redevelopment, which follows their acquisition of the Mirage property in December 2022 for approximately $1 billion. The existing resort closed in July 2024, clearing the way for a full-scale redesign aligned with the Hard Rock brand. The new complex is expected to open in the latter half of 2027, with total project costs estimated between $4 billion and $5 billion.

“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, as reported by KLAS 8 News Now. “We are grateful to our construction teams and their commitment to safety as we watch this property undergo the most significant transformation the Strip has seen in two decades, and we are proud to be at the center of it.”

Major Construction Phase Completed

The topping-off ceremony took place roughly 19 months after ground was first broken at the site. Executives, construction partners, and local officials gathered to mark the moment, which reflects the structural completion of the guitar-shaped tower that will define the property’s skyline presence.

“We sit here at the foot of a structure that will change the skyline, will bring in millions more visitors to the Las Vegas Strip, and also employ up to 6,000 Las Vegas residents from our community,” said Joe Lupo, president of Hard Rock Las Vegas. “It’s truly an honor for the Hard Rock Las Vegas team, who are here today, knowing we will be handed the keys in about a year and a half, and confidently opening the next great, highly successful resort here in Las Vegas.”

The tower itself rises more than 660 feet and spans 42 floors. Its lower section includes the first five levels, while the upper portion houses hundreds of guest rooms and suites. Across different project details, the Guitar Hotel is expected to include between 650 and 675 accommodations.

Construction teams have used significant materials to reach this stage, including millions of pounds of steel and extensive concrete work. The site has also expanded the property footprint by approximately 1.4 million square feet.

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

Full Resort Transformation Underway

Work continues beyond the tower itself. Crews are redesigning the former Mirage’s tri-tower structure into the new Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, alongside updates to gaming areas, pools, and guest amenities.

The completed property is expected to include more than 3,700 hotel rooms, around 175,000 square feet of casino space, and over 200,000 square feet dedicated to meetings and events. Plans also outline multiple pools, spas, entertainment venues, and a range of dining and retail options. The resort is projected to employ roughly 6,000 people.

“The progress speaks for itself. The quality of the work is amazing,” said Ragheb Dajani, senior vice president of development for Hard Rock International. “With all the hard work of all the thousands of construction workers, we set ourselves up to not only reach this milestone successfully but also help push forward to finish this project. That is the significance of this milestone.”

Dajani also highlighted the visual identity of the building. “The guitar tower is going to be the next landmark in Vegas,” he said. “It is a building that everybody’s going to know and recognize. We don’t have to put names or signs on it.”

Safety has remained a focus throughout construction. “But the most important part, and along with delivering this project in a quality manner, on time and under budget, is getting everybody home in the same condition they came to work,” Walker said, noting there has only been one lost-time accident since work began in the summer of 2024.

Development Climate on the Strip

The scale of the Hard Rock project places it among the largest recent developments in Las Vegas. Industry observers suggest it may also be one of the last major ground-up builds on the Strip for some time, given the financial demands involved.

“I just don’t think it pencils economically,” said Bill Lerner, a managing director for CBRE and founder of Union Gaming, who spoke to 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. It’s way too hard to compete with all the multi-properties. The Cosmopolitan finally figured it out after a lot of years of being a single property in a market where you have a few parties that own just about everything and of course now MGM owns it.

“Fontainebleau is struggling for numerous reasons, including not having a feeder property of note,” Lerner said. “It’s improving, but the comps are very difficult. The cost of capital to do it is way too high and development cost to build a competitive property is prohibitive. The capex dollars we will see here will be to refresh (existing properties) to remain competitive, but post the Hard Rock redeveloping The Mirage, I think it could be a really long time.”

Despite those concerns, the Hard Rock project continues to move forward on schedule, with construction employing more than 5,000 workers since its start and nearing the next phase of development.