MGM Resorts has unveiled some sexy new renderings of The Park, an outdoor plaza that will connect New York-New York and Monte Carlo.
The stroll-friendly space will feature restaurants, bars and retail shops.
The renderings also show the location of MGM Resort’s 20,000-seat sports arena. A groundbreaking for the $350 million arena happens May 1, 2014. The arena will open in 2016.
The new outdoor district follows a trend set by Caesars Entertainment with its new Linq outdoor pedestrian mall between Flamingo and The Quad, the centerpiece of which is the world’s tallest Ferris wheel, the High Roller. Both projects are a response to visitor demand for more non-gambling offerings.
A lot of the enhancements at The Park can already be seen at New York-New York and Monte Carlo, and restaurant offerings like Double Barrel Roadhouse have already opened. Soon-to-come is a massive Hershey’s Chocolate World store. Also on the way is a Shake Shack burger stand.
MGM Resorts has given a sneak preview of other offerings in the works, too, including Bruxie, a gourmet waffle restaurant; Sake Rok, featuring Japanese cuisine; a Robert Mondavi Jr. restaurant, lounge and wine bar; Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row, a country bar and restaurant; and a Beer Garden, because beer.

Seriously, though, they couldn’t find even one virtual African-American? How about a Korean? Anything?
Read more about what’s up at The Park, a new way to experience outdoors in Las Vegas. If you’re into that kind of thing. Then again, if we wanted more outdoors, we’d live in Seattle. We’re just saying.
What visitors are demanding more non-gambling offerings?! Is that the self hype of the MGM marketing machine or just more garbage related to the color bar charts that say non gaming revenue is outpacing gaming revenue. What visitors really are demanding is better gaming odds in las vegas however the casino operators are not biting. This is really just more hype to sell over priced drinks in nicer diggs.
Pretty amazing how much money MGM is throwing at 2 mid-to-low range resorts on the south end of the strip. Clearly this is meant to cover what Caesars is doing with the Linq, but have there been any sales numbers justifying those construction costs? It just seems that the two big players on the strip are completely giving up on gaming in pursuit of retail space revenue, like they’d rather be landlords for crappy bar/restaurants chains than invest in casino/room renovation. This is yet another obvious attempt to get people out of the casinos and into retail and restaurants. The retail-ification of Vegas continues…before long the whole Strip’s going to be the Strip…Mall.
Bitch, bitch, bitch, and more bitching.