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.