The Las Vegas Strip Will Have a New Look

A piece of Las Vegas history will come tumbling down over the next several months.

The iconic Mirage Hotel & Casino is being replaced by a Hard Rock property with its just as famous neon guitar-shaped hotel.

The Mirage, with its familiar bubbling volcano on the Las Vegas Strip, became one of the first behemoths to be built on Las Vegas Blvd. and became known for its mammoth size, with more than 3,000 rooms, and a reputation for hosting heavyweight title fights.

Hard Rock paid more than $1 billion for the property. In addition to cosmetic changes, new owners will get rid of the iconic volcano as well as the Siegfried & Roy Secret Garden.

The renovation will take some time, however. No one is anticipating appreciable results until later this year, or even next year.

“The 3,044-room casino resort will continue to operate as The Mirage Hotel & Casino until the renovation and rebranding of the property to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas is complete,” Hard Rock said in a news release. “The process is anticipated to take an extended period, but ultimately will dramatically reimagine every aspect of the resort.”

The hotel plans to stay open during the renovation project and the new owners are looking to locals to help. The first enticement is fully paid parking for local residents. Parking, which used to be free in most Las Vegas casinos, has become something of a bugaboo in recent years, as virtually all of them now charge.

Several hotels now offer free parking to local residents but only for a certain time period, like a three-hour block. But the Hard Rock owners may take it a step above and continue to play to the local crowd, knowing that tourists from afar are probably reluctant to stay at a property that is under construction.