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Miracle Mile Shops’ 1st renovation in 16 years nearly complete

Updated May 18, 2023 - 11:47 pm

The Miracle Mile Shops on the Strip is set to complete its first set of renovations in 16 years in the next few weeks.

The renovations for the mall located at the Planet Hollywood resort were meant to brighten and modernize its interior, which houses 170 tenants, according to Robert Buchanan, the vice president and general manager of the Miracle Mile Shops.

The last time the mall — which first opened in 2000 under the name Desert Passage — was renovated was in 2007 when it changed its name to Miracle Mile.

“It was just time, and of course for us really wanting to stay vibrant and a viable option for people to come shopping on the Strip,” Buchanan said.

The Miracle Mile renovations include adding modern light fixtures, interactive displays and more seating areas in the mall’s walkway, installing new ceilings in certain areas, installing projection technology for light shows inside the mall and placing over 21,000 square-feet LED screens throughout the interior and exterior of the property.

Over 20,000 square-feet of LED screens were installed on the mall’s exterior and about 1,600 square-feet of LED screens were added to the interior. The focus on adding LED screens is meant to help Miracle Mile stand out amid the many shopping and entertainment options on the Strip, according to Buchanan.

“There is a lot of visual stimulation (on the Strip) and you really need to, you really need to take advantage of that opportunity,” Buchanan said. “We’re competing with everything else out there.”

The renovations are slated to finish in June, according to Buchanan, although installation of some exterior LED screens could continue until November.

Other updated features of Miracle Mile include two indoor light shows. One will be a continuation of the Rain Show that happened in the past at Miracle Mile. New features of the Rain Show will include two walls of water that can have light displays shown on them, according to Buchanan.

The other show, called “Elements” and reflecting elements like ice, fire and earth, will be shown outside the V Theater.

Putting more shows inside Miracle Mile is meant to provide more entertainment and experiences in the mall, according to Buchanan.

“People are looking for those experiences,” he said. “The Vegas experience, even if it’s a store that customers might find in their market, for example that we put in, it’s the Vegas version of that store.”

Buchanan said there have been plans to renovate Miracle Mile since 2017. Officials were set to start the renovations in 2020 but those plans were delayed by the pandemic. He said the renovations started up again in January 2022 and have focused on individual sections over the last year and a half so the mall could stay open during the renovations.

Despite a lot of updates to the mall, some old favorites of Miracle Mile will stay, including the painted ceilings above some of the walkways and portions of the Moroccan facades that were original to the Desert Passage mall. Additionally, the mall is keeping the facade of the Desert Passage ship.

“The way I characterize it is that we’re renovating, we’re updating but we’re not losing that Desert Passage character,” Buchanan said.

Contact Sean Hemmersmeier at shemmersmeier@reviewjournal.com. Follow @seanhemmers34 on Twitter.

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