CityCenter
Aria Campus, commonly known by its former name CityCenter, is a mixed-use, urban complex on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is located on 67 acres (27 ha) and contains a total of 18-million sq ft (1,700,000 m2). The complex includes Aria Resort and Casino, the Vdara condo-hotel, the Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas hotel and condominiums, the Veer Towers condominiums, and a mall known as The Shops at Crystals. Another hotel and condo project, The Harmon, never opened due to construction defects; the site was redeveloped as another shopping mall, known as 63.
CityCenter was developed by MGM Mirage and Dubai World. The project was conceived by MGM president and chief financial officer Jim Murren, who envisioned an urban district for Las Vegas, similar to Greenwich Village or Haight-Ashbury. MGM announced CityCenter on November 9, 2004. Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects spent 20 months working with MGM on the master plan. Numerous architects, assembled by Gensler, were hired to work on individual components of CityCenter. The project received LEED Gold certifications for its environmentally friendly designs.
Construction of CityCenter began on June 25, 2006, with Perini Building Company as general contractor. A year later, Dubai World joined MGM as a partner on the project. Six workers died during construction, eventually prompting others to walk off the job in June 2008. Construction resumed the next day, after Perini agreed to improved safety demands. Dubai World later threatened to withhold further financing due to cost overruns, before reaching an agreement with MGM. CityCenter was completed at a cost of $8.5 billion, making it the most expensive privately funded construction project in U.S. history.
Vdara was the first property to open at CityCenter, debuting on December 2, 2009. Other properties opened later that month, while Veer Towers was completed in 2010. Aria is considered the central feature of CityCenter, and it includes the only casino at the complex. By 2019, CityCenter had been renamed Aria Campus.
MGM has sold off several of its CityCenter properties, including Crystals in 2016, the Mandarin Oriental hotel (now Waldorf Astoria) in 2018, and the former Harmon site in 2021. Later that year, MGM bought out Dubai World's ownership stake, gaining full control of Aria and Vdara, its last remaining properties at the complex. Both were sold in 2021, although MGM continues to operate them.
