HOMELas Vegas City Center
CityCenter
The most expensive privately funded construction project in U.S. History.
The first phase of MGM MIRAGE's CityCenter Las Vegas, a gargantuan $7.4 billion,
68 acre project, is under construction on the Las Vegas Strip between Bellagio
and Monte Carlo. It will eventually occupy the space behind and between Monte
Carlo and New York New York as well. The Boardwalk Hotel was demolished along
with a few local businesses to make room for this immense project. Harmon Road
will meander through CityCenter.
CityCenter will be an urban environment with nicely hidden parking structures,
parks and a complex of rooftop gardens. The project will be a mini-city with
its own Fire Station, an on-site power plant and lots of pedestrian
space. CityCenter has achieved LEED certification for the project as outlined by
the U.S. Green Building Council.
The current inventory (with the respective architect) consists of:
• 4,000-room 60-story CityCenter Resort and Casino (Cesar Pelli)
• 165,000-square-foot casino (Pelli)
• 400-room Mandarin Oriental Hotel/Residences (Pedersen / Tihany)
• 400-room The Harmon Hotel/Residences (Foster and Partners)
• 1500-unit Vdara Condo/Hotel tower (Rafael Viñoly)
• Twin, 350-unit luxury condo towers Veer (Helmut Jahn)
• 500,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space (Daniel
Libeskind)
• 225,000 square feet of convention and meeting space
• 900,000 square feet for back-of-house operations
• 2,000-seat theater
• 70,000-square-foot spa
• 7,500-car parking garage
• Fire station
• people movers (trams)
• On-site power plant
CityCenter will have a 1/4 mile Strip frontage. The project's center will be
60-story casino/resort with 4,000-rooms, designed by world renowned architect
Cesar Pelli. There will be plenty of glitz in the form of light shows projected
against building facades and plenty of Times Square style neon. Preliminary
reports from MGM MIRAGE state that a new Cirque du Soleil show, called Elvis,
will premiere at the CityCenter Resort on opening day.
CityCenter will have 8,000 construction workers and 39 cranes on site at the
peak of construction and create 12,000 new permanent positions once open.
CityCenter is expected to open phase one in November of 2009 and is currently
the single most expensive privately funded project in the western hemisphere.
The Cosmopolitan Resort/Condo-Hotel, being built directly north of the project,
is using a similar modern architectural style which will nicely compliment the
project.