Bellagio
Las Vegas NV
2009


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellagio_(resort)


Bellagio is a resort, luxury hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned by The Blackstone Group 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. However, Wynn changed the project plans in 1995, instead theming it after the village of Bellagio, near Lake Como. The resort was designed by Jon Jerde. Construction began on November 1, 1995, with Marnell Corrao Associates as general contractor.

The site of the 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. However, 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-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.