Encore Las Vegas

Image & source

Done

Encore’s tower and casino entrance, photographed June 7, 2013. This dated view does not establish current access conditions.

Encore opened on December 22, 2008, immediately north of Wynn Las Vegas. Wynn Resorts announced an eight o’clock evening debut for a new resort with 2,034 suites. The familiar curved bronze tower belonged to a later phase of the connected complex: Wynn’s own hotel had opened in 2005. Encore gave that larger resort another hotel and casino with its own arrival areas and interior spaces.

The original Desert Inn hotel site

The land carried an older hotel history. When the company broke ground for Encore in April 2006, it explicitly identified the location as the original Desert Inn site. The Desert Inn hotel and casino had closed in 2000; remaining structures were still awaiting demolition in the company’s 2004 plans. Encore therefore followed the removal and redevelopment of the earlier hotel. The broad Desert Inn resort and country-club grounds also extended beyond the new tower’s footprint.

A distinct resort within a connected complex

The opening-night account emphasized Roger Thomas’s interiors, daylight, gardens and pools visible through the resort. It described a casino divided into smaller pavilion-like spaces. Those details explain how the company presented Encore as an identifiable destination even while connecting its public spaces and meeting facilities with Wynn.

Encore at Wynn Las Vegas

Financial records use the name Encore at Wynn Las Vegas and describe it as an expansion of Wynn Las Vegas. That accounting language and the separate hotel identity can coexist. A visitor can move through a connected resort while its buildings retain distinct opening dates, names and histories. Encore’s 2008 opening does not move Wynn’s 2005 opening forward or make the Desert Inn’s lost buildings survive.

The 2010 pool and nightlife expansion

A further change arrived in May 2010, when the Encore Beach Club and Surrender nightclub opened. Wynn’s annual filing dates the Las Vegas openings to May 28. Daytime pool entertainment and nightlife became another part of the resort’s evolving offer, separate from the hotel’s original debut.

Later renovations

The resort continues to change. In its August 2026 earnings presentation, Wynn Resorts identified remodels of the Encore Tower rooms and XS among its Las Vegas investments. That is evidence of a later renovation program, rather than a new opening of the hotel. This history does not infer a completion date from the company’s plans.

A dated view and a qualified location

The photograph records Encore in June 2013, with its tower and casino entrance visible above landscaped steps and escalators. It documents that period’s appearance. The map identifies the hotel tower area, rather than promising that the photographed entrance, access arrangements or surrounding grounds are unchanged.

Read the full history ↗

Sources and context

1. Wynn Resorts: Encore opens tonight at 8 p.m.

   December 22, 2008 opening-night announcement: 8 p.m. debut, 2,034 suites, separate arrival areas, Roger Thomas interiors and connected meeting space. Describes the opening-period offer; not a current amenity inventory.

2. Wynn Resorts: Encore groundbreaking on original Desert Inn site

   April 28, 2006: Encore groundbreaking on original Desert Inn site north of Wynn, integrated new hotel. Wynn opening April 28, 2005. Its retrospective compresses Desert Inn opening/acquisition dates; those dates are qualified by UNLV/contemporary filing in the predecessor history.

3. Wynn Resorts: 2004 expansion announcement

   May 3, 2004: remaining Desert Inn structures awaiting demolition on a twenty-acre site. Supports the phased predecessor redevelopment.

4. Wynn Resorts: 2002 registration filing

   Historical Development and financial Note 1: August 28, 2000 hotel/casino closure; golf and related operations initially excepted.

5. Wynn Resorts: 2011 annual filing

   Las Vegas Operations: Encore at Wynn Las Vegas opened December 22, 2008 as expansion; pre-opening costs section dates Encore Beach Club/Surrender opening May 28, 2010. Distinguishes Las Vegas from Encore at Wynn Macau.

6. Wynn Resorts: 2Q26 earnings presentation

   August 2026 presentation, PDF page 12: targeted investments include remodels of Encore Tower rooms and XS; page 3 identifies Wynn/Encore Las Vegas among operating resort portfolio. No completion date inferred.

7. OpenStreetMap contributors: Encore hotel tower

   Way 27910891 version 22, full node geometry read October 19, 2026; representative point 36.12946,-115.16473 inside polygon, approximate 149×121mextent; hotel tower distinct from casino podium and theater.

8. Wikimedia Commons: Encore in June 2013

   Ahodges7 own-work photograph dated June 7, 2013, CC BY-SA 3.0; exact 960×1438 Commons derivative visually inspected and natively ingested. Historical image, not current access proof.

The opening announcement describes the resort as presented in 2008; individual restaurants, shops, interiors and access arrangements may have changed.

The 2026 investor presentation records renovation work and plans. It does not establish a completed refurbishment or a guaranteed visitor schedule.

The earlier Desert Inn occupied a larger and changing site. A modern hotel point does not establish the precise boundaries of every historical building.