Bellagio (resort)
Bellagio is a resort, luxury hotel, and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned by Blackstone Inc. and operated by MGM Resorts International. Bellagio was conceived by casino owner Steve Wynn, and was built on the former site of the Dunes hotel-casino. Wynn's company, Mirage Resorts, purchased the Dunes in 1992. Plans were announced in 1994 to replace it with Beau Rivage, a French-themed resort. In 1995, Wynn changed the project plans to instead theme it after the village of Bellagio, on Lake Como. The resort was designed by Jon Jerde. Construction began on November 1, 1995, with Marnell Corrao Associates as general contractor.
Bellagio opened on October 15, 1998, with 3,005 rooms in a 36-story tower. Built at a cost of $1.6 billion, it was the world's most expensive resort up to that point. Early revenue was less than expected, and Wynn departed the resort in May 2000, when Mirage Resorts merged with MGM Grand Inc. Profits improved under the ownership of the newly formed MGM Mirage. A 33-story hotel tower, with 928 rooms, was opened in 2004. MGM owned Bellagio until 2019, when it sold the resort to Blackstone Inc. for $4.25 billion. MGM continues to operate the property under a lease arrangement.
Bellagio is located on. It includes a casino and 3,933 rooms. The resort's signature attraction is the Fountains of Bellagio, a dancing water fountain synchronized to music. It is performed in an 8.5-acre man-made lake, located in front of the resort. Other attractions include the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, and a conservatory and botanical gardens. The hotel lobby features Fiori di Como, a sculpture by glass artist Dale Chihuly. It is the world's largest glass sculpture.
Bellagio has numerous restaurants including Le Cirque, Spago by Wolfgang Puck, PRIME Steakhouse, the eponymous Michael Mina, and Carbone Riviera. Bellagio includes an 1,800 seat theater for performances of O, a water-themed show by Cirque du Soleil. The property also has a high-end retail area which introduced several luxury brands to Las Vegas, including Chanel, Gucci, and Prada.
History
Background and development
The site of Bellagio was previously occupied by the Dunes hotel-casino, which opened in 1955. Through his company Mirage Resorts, casino owner Steve Wynn purchased the Dunes in November 1992, for $75 million. He intended to demolish it and build a new resort in its place. An early idea was to build five or six complexes with approximately 500 rooms each, along with a small theme park. As the Dunes closed in January 1993, Wynn proposed including a man-made lake in his new project for water skiing and windsurfing. County officials questioned whether such a feature could be included following the passage of a 1990 water ordinance. A state expert found it unlikely that the lake would cause major soil sinking. The county modified the ordinance in February 1994, allowing Wynn to proceed with a man-made lake, on the condition that he honor his claim that it would use less water than the Dunes' former golf course.On October 17, 1994, Mirage Resorts announced plans to build the French-themed Beau Rivage resort on the land, at a cost of $700-$900 million. It would be surrounded by a 50-acre lake with guests entering by footbridges. Mirage Resorts announced a name change in July 1995, stating that the resort would be named Bellagio, after the village of Bellagio, Lombardy in northern Italy. The resort's designer, Jon Jerde, had been vacationing on Lake Como. Impressed by its beauty, he convinced Wynn to come see the area. While on the lake with friend Paul Anka, Wynn noticed the nearby village of Bellagio, and spent half a day there. The village's Italian architecture inspired Wynn to scrap 10 months' worth of design work for Beau Rivage in favor of a Bellagio-themed resort. Wynn would later use the Beau Rivage name for another resort in Mississippi.
The Las Vegas project was revised and scaled back. Among the changes was a reduction in the size of the lake feature; Mirage Resorts determined that it would use too much water as originally planned. The hotel tower, originally planned at 49 stories, was also reduced. The design and planning process took a total of 28 months, dating to 1993. Wynn said "there was no need to rush the project. We wanted to get it right". Jerde's design firm spent a total of four years designing the project. Wynn's in-house design team, Atlandia Design, handled the interior. Aside from the Dunes, a Denny's restaurant was also demolished to make way for Bellagio.
Construction began on November 1, 1995, and the opening was initially scheduled for March 1998. Marnell Corrao Associates served as general contractor. The project's cost increased several times, in part because of new features being added. A shortage of skilled workers also resulted in rising labor costs. It was financed through various lenders. Finished at a cost of $1.6 billion, it was the most expensive resort ever built.
Wynn envisioned Bellagio as a five-star resort catering to tourists who typically visit places other than Las Vegas, such as Paris, London, or Venice. He said Bellagio would "redefine Las Vegas", describing it as the "most ambitious" and luxurious project ever attempted by Mirage Resorts. He also said it would be "the most romantic, delicious place ever built in the world", as well as the "greatest" and "most beautiful" hotel ever.
The property features a variety of trees. Before the opening, builders spent more than a year searching the western U.S. for mature Japanese privets, which are capable of withstanding the dry Las Vegas heat. A deal was reached to remove approximately 30 privets from the government center in Ventura County, California, and replant them at Bellagio, at a cost of nearly $10,000 per tree. The resort's pool area is surrounded by a Mediterranean garden that included nearly 300 pine trees, left over from the Dunes golf course.
Opening
The opening was highly anticipated, and crowd-control measures were in preparation months prior. Mirage Resorts launched a $10 million advertising campaign which included 60-second television commercials, featuring opera singer Andrea Bocelli.A pre-opening VIP party took place on the night of October 15, 1998, with 1,800 in attendance, including Nevada governor Bob Miller. The public opening followed at 10:45 p.m. Crowds, waiting to enter the resort, reached an estimated 25,000 people. Within the first day, the resort had received more than 80,000 visitors.
The property included 3,005 hotel rooms, a casino, and high-end shops and restaurants. The resort's main attraction was an 8.5-acre man-made lake, featuring a water show known as Fountains of Bellagio. Other attractions included a conservatory and the $285 million Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art. More than half of the resort's revenue was expected to come from non-gaming amenities. Bellagio employed 9,500 people, 3,200 of them coming from other properties also owned by Mirage Resorts. Casino executive Bobby Baldwin served as the resort's president.
Bellagio received positive reception. The level of luxury would eventually inspire other Las Vegas resorts to become more upscale. Las Vegas developer Irwin Molasky said, "In our lifetime we will never see another building or hotel with such beauty and grace". Brian Greenspun of the Las Vegas Sun said the opening "by all accounts, was a first for Las Vegas", stating that the resort exceeded expectations. The newspaper's Steve Friess later called the opening a "pivotal" turning point in Las Vegas history: "The opening of a genuine luxury resort with great food, shopping and amenities was the most important step toward saying to the world, 'Vegas isn't tacky anymore'". Residents of the Bellagio village reportedly found few similarities with the resort.
Ownership changes and expansion
When it opened, Bellagio's room rates averaged $200 a night, compared to $81 for most other Strip resorts. Early revenue was less than expected, with the resort making $260 million in cash flow during 1999, more than $40 million short of Wynn's predictions. Plans for a 1,300-room addition were put on hold in March 2000, while Mirage Resorts finalized a merger with MGM Grand Inc. The deal closed in May 2000, giving MGM Grand ownership of Bellagio. Wynn was not upset with the sale: "I've always been someone who focuses on the next project. The only part I ever enjoyed was the building, the design. I've always been the design guy". The company changed its name to MGM Mirage later that year, and Bellagio's cash flow improved under the new ownership, prompting reconsideration of the hotel expansion plan.Plans for a second tower were confirmed in August 2002, as part of a $375 million expansion. The new Spa Tower would be built south of the main tower and would offer access to the spa. The expansion would also include an additional spa, salon, meeting and retail space, as well as a new restaurant. Marnell Corrao Associates returned as general contractor. Construction on the Spa Tower began in April 2003. It was topped off a year later, and opened on December 23, 2004. It added 928 rooms, for a total of 3,933. Convention space was also increased to. The resort hired 1,400 new employees for the expanded facilities, bringing the total to 10,000.
By 2004, Bellagio was the most profitable hotel-casino in Las Vegas. In 2012, MGM and Suning Real Estate announced plans to expand the Bellagio name with a 200-room hotel in Shanghai, which eventually opened in 2018. Twenty years after its opening, Bellagio remained one of the most popular resorts on the Las Vegas Strip.
In October 2019, MGM Resorts announced it would sell Bellagio to Blackstone Inc. for $4.25 billion. Through the deal, the two companies would form a joint venture that would lease Bellagio back to MGM Resorts for an annual rent of $245 million. The sale was completed in November 2019. Under the deal, MGM acquired a five-percent ownership stake in the venture and continued to operate the resort through the lease.
In July 2023, MGM Resorts announced an agreement with Marriott International to bring its properties within Marriott's international reservations system and its Bonvoy loyalty program. The new partnership, which began in 2024, has Bellagio marketed within The Luxury Collection division of Marriott as Bellagio, a Luxury Collection Resort & Casino, Las Vegas. In August 2023, Blackstone sold a 21.9-percent stake in the resort to Realty Income for $950 million.