The 450-foot guitar-shaped hotel at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida “will be the first building in the world that’s truly scale-designed as an authentic guitar,” said Hard Rock International Chairman James Allen. “We could have easily just built some rectangular building but the tribe is once again trying to create something that is iconic, that creates international tourism coming to Florida. We truly believe that the design alone will create additional tourism.”
Scheduled for completion in 2020, the $1.5 billion project was launched in October 2017 with a “guitar smashing” ceremony including legendary rockers like Iron Maiden’s Nicko McBrain and the E Street Band’s Steven Van Zandt.
The new hotel will offer 638 rooms and suites, doubling the capacity of the world’s sixth-largest hotel casino to more than 1,300 rooms. The project also will offer a 41,000 square foot mega-spa and 60,000 square feet of dining and retail. It already has created 14,585 construction jobs; another 19,450 permanent positions are expected, including 4,800 full-time.