Aria Walking Tour
6 discoveries Audio narration
Historical image unavailable.
ARIA opened on December 16, 2009, as the casino resort at the centre of CityCenter. The wider development combined hotels, homes, shops and public art. Its opening came in stages: Vdara, Crystals and Mandarin Oriental had welcomed visitors earlier that month. ARIA's debut completed the development's main casino-hotel opening sequence, rather than opening every CityCenter building at once.
A resort within CityCenter
The project joined MGM Mirage, the company later known as MGM Resorts International, with Infinity World, a Dubai World subsidiary. A contemporary company report describes ARIA as CityCenter's centrepiece. That distinction helps explain the site: ARIA is one resort within a larger development, not an alternative name for every neighbouring hotel and residential tower.
The earlier Boardwalk site
Contemporary reporting placed the opening three and a half years after the Boardwalk hotel's implosion. The Boardwalk had occupied part of the future development's Strip frontage. This establishes a redevelopment history for the wider CityCenter site; it does not establish that ARIA's tower precisely occupies the old Boardwalk building footprint.
A partner buyout and a real-estate sale
The ownership structure changed in September 2021. MGM's annual report records the purchase of Infinity World's remaining half of CityCenter on September 27. The following day, MGM sold the ARIA and Vdara real-estate assets to Blackstone-managed funds and leased the properties back. These were separate steps: buying out a development partner and selling the land and buildings under a lease did not mean the casino closed or acquired a new public name.
ARIA continues to be presented as an operating MGM resort on its official website. Its published address is 3730 South Las Vegas Boulevard. The resort sits within a large connected development, so a street-address locator should not be mistaken for an exact hotel entrance, a surveyed resort boundary or the former Boardwalk site.
Read the full historySources and context
MGM Mirage: 2009 full-year results
CityCenter section: joint venture, December 2009 phased openings and ARIA opening on December 16. Supports introduction paragraphs 1–2.
Las Vegas Sun: MGM Mirage executives mark the CityCenter opening
Contemporary report, December 16–17, 2009: three and a half years since Boardwalk implosion; the old hotel occupied part of the development frontage. Supports introduction paragraph 3; no exact footprint inferred.
MGM Resorts International: 2021 annual report
CityCenter acquisition and ARIA real-estate transaction, September 27–28, 2021. Supports significance paragraph 1; operations and property ownership distinguished.
ARIA: official contact and directions
Current resort presentation and published address, read October 19, 2026. Supports significance paragraph 2 and location statement; no entrance coordinate inferred.
OpenStreetMap contributors: ARIA building, way 52175576
Version 23, current public full geometry read October 19, 2026. Existing representative point 36.10702, -115.17766 is inside the mapped hotel/casino polygon; building extent about 390×420m. OpenStreetMap data © contributors, ODbL; representative area, not entrance or exact legal footprint.
CityCenter redeveloped a wider site that included the Boardwalk frontage; this account does not equate the ARIA tower footprint with the former Boardwalk building.
The map marks the main building area, not an entrance or a surveyed legal boundary. The photograph records a dated CityCenter view and is not a wayfinding guide.
