The Las Vegas Strip never stops changing. Casinos change names and get demolished, and once-vacant plots of land become wondrous things. Las Vegas has always been a city steeped in nostalgia that's not actually nostalgic. The city loves its history, but it's willing to cast it aside if a better opportunity comes along.
Over the past two years, however, Las Vegas's most famous street -- one of the most famous streets in the world -- has seen unprecedented change. The biggest players, Caesars Entertainment (CZR) and MGM Resorts International (MGM), have made huge moves, but they're not the only players entering, exiting, or changing their plans in this multibillion-dollar market.
It's a high-stakes game that's happening just after the city has dealt with the Covid pandemic. Las Vegas has managed through shutdowns, losing basically its entire convention business for more than a year, and it only recently got rid of its indoor mask mandate.
Now, the city has returned to something like normal as the impact of the pandemic fades. That has cleared the decks for massive changes.
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What Are Caesars and MGM Doing?
Caesars and MGM dominate the Las Vegas Strip but that does not mean either company has decided to rest on its laurels. Both companies have made, or are in the midst of making, major changes.
The biggest of those may be MGM paying $1.6 billion to acquire the Cosmopolitan. That deal was followed by the company selling the Mirage for just over $1 billion to Hard Rock International, which plans to build a guitar hotel on the property while keeping its current main hotel tower.
Essentially, MGM has traded the Mirage for the Cosmopolitan. Chief Executive Bill Hornbuckle talked about the deal during the company's third-quarter earnings call.
We announced an agreement to acquire the operations of the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, a high-quality resort with enviable product offerings, strong brand awareness and complementary customer base making it an ideal addition to our Las Vegas Strip portfolio. We also believe that the synergies we have identified are highly achievable...As such, we are currently in the early stages of a process to sell the operations of the Mirage. Doing so will allow us to maintain our existing Las Vegas exposure, while focusing on the complementary and diverse nature of our offerings in our hometown.
That deal, of course, has now been done and it will literally change the look of the Strip when the guitar hotel gets built.
Caesars hasn't done anything quite as bold as swapping one major casino property for another, but it is making a major change, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
"Elsewhere on the Strip, Bally’s Corp., which somehow doesn’t own Bally’s and never did (that was the unrelated Bally Manufacturing), is in the process of acquiring the Tropicana, which it’s expected to call Bally’s.
"That switch will be possible because the current Bally’s, which had been the MGM Grand — not to be confused with the current MGM Grand, parts of which used to be the Marina — is being renamed the Horseshoe," the paper explained.
Caesars owns the Horsehoe name and has used it outside Las Vegas. The name has a long history in the city, but it was used on a downtown hotel owned by Benny Binion, a legendary Vegas figure whose name still adorns a Fremont Street casino.
"Over the years, as the brand expanded to markets across the country, Horseshoe has stayed true to its heritage, holding on to the thrilling spirit of no-limit betting," Caesars said in a news release. "...In keeping with Horseshoe's classic sophistication, the design team will incorporate a handcrafted feeling with tooled leather, dramatic colors, and the brand's signature gold horseshoe iconography."
Caesars and MGM Are Not the Only Players
In addition to the moves being made by the Las Vegas Strip's biggest players, a number of other changes are coming or have been recently completed:
- Fontainebleau Las Vegas: This project has been in some state of construction since the mid-2000s and it does now look ready to open by the end of 2023.
- The Las Vegas Convention Center: The LVCC opened its $1 billion, 1.4-million-square-foot new hall in June.
- Resorts World Las Vegas: The first fully new casino on the Strip in more than 10 years, Resorts World GEBHY cost $4.3 billion, but it managed to open in June despite the pandemic.
- The Oakland Athletics are negotiating for a Major League Baseball stadium with at least four separate sites on or adjacent to The Strip.
In addition, construction continues on the MSG Sphere, "a globe-shaped, $1.8 billion Las Vegas entertainment and media venue being built by Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. and casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp," U.S. News and World Report reported.
Madison Square Garden (MSGE) and Las Vegas Sands (LVS) are building that structure, which will be an immersive entertainment venue "behind the Venetian and Palazzo resorts and Sands Expo and Convention [Center. It] will be 366 feet (111.6 meters) tall — more than half the height of the Palazzo — and 516 feet (157.3 meters) wide at its widest point."
