History
The 18-acre site at the northwest corner of the Tropicana – Las Vegas Boulevard intersection had been considered a prime spot for development due to its proximity to the MGM Grand, Excalibur, and Tropicana. Japanese firm Universal Distributing owned the property, and had discussed a joint venture with the Promus Companies to build a hotel-casino, but could not reach an agreement. In 1992, Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corporation bought the site for $31.5 million and gave a free two-year option to buy it to MGM Grand Inc., of which Kerkorian owned a 76 percent stake.
The idea of a casino modeled after the New York skyline was conceived by Sig Rogich (a former White House staffer and United States Ambassador to Iceland) and Mark Advent. Rogich brought the idea to his friend, Gary Primm, head of Primadonna Resorts. Primm approached MGM president Bob Maxey in 1994 with the idea for MGM's prime Strip location, and a joint venture was formed between the two companies. Construction began in March 1995.
Completed at a cost of $460 million, New York-New York opened on January 3, 1997.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, people spontaneously sent various tributes to New York-New York, especially t-shirts from police, fire and rescue departments around the country. These are displayed along the fence in front of the "Lady Liberty" replica. Eventually, they added a permanent memorial. The twin towers of the World Trade Center have never been included in the skyscrapers depicted in the resort's facade; it is claimed the facade is meant to represent New York City as it was in the 1940s.
The US Post Office Forever Statue of Liberty Stamp, which was intended to show the actual Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, actually shows the replica at New York-New York. This is due to an error by the stamp designers, who incorrectly chose a stock photo of the replica instead of the original and did not recognize the difference. Over 10.5 billion stamps had been printed with the error before it was noticed, by which point it could not be corrected.
Read more about this topic: New York-New York Hotel And Casino
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