LAS VEGAS, May 11 -- Mirage Resorts Inc. said Wednesday it has agreed to build a $250 million resort-casino on the Las Vegas Strip with Gold Strike Resorts.
The 3,000-room project, with 100,000 square feet of casino space, is scheduled to open in mid-1996.
The 43-acre project, which will sit on the old Dunes site across the street from the new MGM Grand Casino and Theme Park, will capitalize on a spate of new mega-resort projects on the famed Strip.
Over the past year, the MGM Grand, Circus Circus's Luxor and the Mirage's Treasure Island have opened, attracting more families to the gambling mecca.
The new resort will position itself toward the 'value-minded' tourist and 'allow Mirage to enter a market segment where we do not already compete,' the Mirage said.
Gold Strike owns and operates four low-cost hotel-casinos in Nevada and is developing a fifth, and also is building a riverboat in Elgin, Ill., near Chicago, in a venture with Hyatt Development Corp.
'Our intent is to present our customers with a unique entertainment environment at popular prices that have few, if any, rivals on the Las Vegas Strip, said Michael Ensign, co-founder of Gold Strike Resorts. 'Our Gold Strike properties are proven low-cost providers of entertainment to the mass market and we look forward to offering a similar product at the heart of the Las Vegas Strip.'
Mirage and Gold Strike each will own 50 percent of the project and Gold Strike will manage it.
A themed transportation link will connect the resort to another Mirage planned luxury resort, which also will sit on the old Dunes hotel site. The Mirage may unveil plans for the next resort later this year, said Stephen Wynn, Mirage Resorts' chairman and chief executive officer.
