Mirage developer Steve Wynn offers tribute to resort as it closes

The man who financed, developed and built The Mirage said the fate of Las Vegas and thousands of employees who worked there depended on the success of the project.

Former Wynn Resorts Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn, 82, delivered his “Homage to Lady Mirage” Monday, a going-away tribute to the resort that ushered in modern Las Vegas, days before the building is scheduled to be closed and remodeled as Hard Rock Las Vegas under the ownership of Florida’s Seminole Tribe.

Wynn, now a resident of Florida, began work on The Mirage in the mid-1980s before opening the doors of the resort on Nov. 22, 1989.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal requested an interview with Wynn about the property, and on Saturday he said he preferred to submit a written tribute to a handful of newspapers.

“If you had a sense of humor, you would have understood the tremendous contradiction in the name,” he said. “She was most definitely not actually a mirage, but a dazzling and commanding reality. The largest hotel ever built at that point in history, anywhere in the world.”

Wynn resigned as a Wynn Resorts executive in 2018 amid sexual misconduct allegations that he denies to this day.

In 2023, Nevada regulators assessed a fine of $10 million against him personally and the investigation of harassment allegations led to the highest fine ever assessed by the Nevada Gaming Commission, $20 million against Wynn Resorts in 2019. He is no longer associated with the gaming industry.

In his tribute to Mirage, Wynn described some of the inspiration behind developing the property.

“Why feminine? As a structure, she was always about ideas and those ideas had a soft feminine quality in many ways.

“Two thousand of her 3,000 rooms reached out to the Strip beckoning and welcoming the public. Instead of neon, a garden of dozens of rich Canary Island palm trees and a cool refreshing waterfall that glistened in the hot Southern Nevada desert sun. Visible between the towers, a round four-story atrium that suggested the round midsection of a woman promising future life.

“The notion of offspring turned out to be real as well. In the prior 16 years, no completely new hotel had been built in Las Vegas. Perhaps the result of the spread of gambling to Atlantic City and the beginning of widespread Indian gaming in California. But other than a few additional rooms being built at existing hotels such as the Golden Nugget, nothing was built from scratch. However, in the next decade following the 1989 arrival of Mirage, we rushed into a virtual doubling of the town’s capacity and became the fastest growing city in America. To call The Mirage a catalyst would be an understatement.”

Wynn also commented about the animals that inhabited The Mirage and the Siegfried &Roy show that drew thousands of people to the property.

Marine education

“Once again, she was always about ideas, and she had a soul. For example, dolphin lagoons were dedicated every weekday until noon to the education and delight of all the children of the Clark County School District. Buses brought the teachers and the kids everyday to learn about marine mammals and watch the dolphins play. Then in the afternoon the public had access.

“The first guests to check into the hotel on that day in November were two white tigers accompanied by Siegfried &Roy whose remarkable performances graced the hotel. But the people could also wander through the secret garden of Siegfried &Roy next to the dolphins and experience close-up intimacy with white tigers, black and white tigers, white lions, black leopards, and even a wonderful Asian elephant named Jilda and her surprising roommate, a wild turkey, that were all on display. Arriving guests who were checking in were treated to a full wall in the lobby of live sharks swimming with hundreds of tropical fish behind the front desk and enjoying the aroma of pina colada. Furthermore, as a reminder that the Lady had spunk, she sported a volcano out front that erupted every 30 minutes in the face of Caesar right next door. What fun!

Dependent on Mirage

“So much depended on Lady Mirage. Almost 8,000 employees and their families depended on her. Siegfried &Roy depended on her, the dolphins and the kids depended on her, and it turns out the future of Las Vegas depended on her.

“What is so wonderful about this grand enterprise is that she did the job and she got it done for everybody.

Bravo, Mirage, you put a warm smile on the face of our city.”

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.