Las Vegas moon-shaped casino would be world's largest spherical building
oon World Resorts planned moon-shaped casino with a “lunar surface” for Las Vegas is not only an ambitious enterprise for the Canadian company, but a potentially record-setting one: it aims at becoming the world’s largest spherical building.
To be located on the Las Vegas Strip, the spherical 224-meter circumference lunar hotel is set to be built for an estimated $5 billion. In addition to becoming the largest spherical structure on Earth, the building would also be the second-highest on the Vegas skyline, Canadian founder Michael R Henderson said to NZ Herald.
The 1/75,000-sized replica of the moon will include a 292,011 square-foot “lunar surface” on the resort’s top floor. A shuttle will take guests to this part of the property at a price of $500 for 90 minutes fee.
“People want something unique, something different, something ‘Wow,’” Henderson told New York Post. The resort will also include 4,000 suites, a 10,000-seat arena and a planetarium, as well as a 500,000 square-foot convention center in the shape of a spaceship.
Preliminary design for the project also contemplates a “crater café”, casino area, and a space-themed thrill ride, which is designed to emulate the experience of taking a “moon buggy” around lunar craters at a $730 price a go.
The architectural design and intellectual property licensor will license four luxury, unique MOON Destination Resorts around the world, witch conversations taking place to build projects in Asia, Europe, and the United Arab Emirates, although Henderson told NZ Herald the Las Vegas resort is the most likely to get off the ground. China and Spain are two options being considered.
Henderson has spent about two decades developing the Moon World Resorts, an endeavor frequently seen as impossible to convert into reality. However, this time around, the company’s founder believes Las Vegas, Nevada could be a possible starting place.
“In our view, it’s the state with the most progressive and professional planning authority, plus Nevada is not fearful of large-scale hospitality projects, indeed it welcomes them,” said Henderson.
The project has an ambitious 48-month timeframe should it be greenlighted. “From a scale perspective, yes, MOON is large; however, it is similar in scale to many developments in Las Vegas,” said Moon World Resorts’ founder. According to estimates, the resort would be worth 10 million annual visits to the city.
In the last year, the casino landscape in Las Vegas saw two brand-new properties opening: Circa Resort in downtown Vegas last year, the first downtown casino-hotel built from the ground up in four decades; and Resorts World Las Vegas, which held its opening ceremony in June, south of downtown. It became the first new resort to open on the Strip since Cosmopolitan, in 2010