MGM Resorts International, along with entertainment and sports business partner AEG have announced plans to build a $100 million, 5000-seat theater outside the Monte Carlo along MGM’s unconventional 8-acre outside ‘Park’ entertainment promenade and adjacent to their new 20,000-seat arena. Entry into the venue will from both the outdoor complex as well as within the hotel, and the building design includes a flexible and malleable interior that allows for a broad spectrum of staging potentials.

This will be MGM’s first 5,000-seat range venue adding a mid-sized multi-purpose facility to their premiere entertainment properties in Las Vegas: Two arenas, fourteen concert theaters, over two dozen nightclubs, two festival lots, and seven theaters housing the many Cirque du Soleil resident company shows. Unlike other similarly sized Vegas venues, this theater’s conceptualization is innovative and unique. MGM Resorts President Bill Hornbuckle told the Las Vegas Sun that the new theater will enable the company to host shorter running, headlining offerings while adding greater diversity to their large stable of successful Las Vegas resident entertainers.

The architectural and design team Sceno Plus in Montreal has a long-standing relationship with MGM having also designed their multi-billion dollar projects – the MGM Cotai in Macau and the MGM National Harbor in Maryland. However, this current project has similarities with other AEG venues notably L.A.’s Staples Center arena adjacent to the smaller Microsoft, (formerly Nokia) theater.

In preparation of construction at the Monte Carlo, MGM has begun shuffling current resident entertainers to other venues. Contemporary dance troupe Jabbawockeez is moving from the Luxor to the Beacher’s Madhouse venue at the MGM Grand, and the famed Blue Man Group is moving from the Monte Carlo to the Luxor.

The new, currently unnamed theater is expected to begin operations sometime in late 2017, an investment designed to strengthen MGM’s position as the premiere entertainment company in Las Vegas.