Aria Las Vegas began as part of MGM Mirage's (now known as MGM Resorts International) 67 acre "Project City Center", which replaced the Boardwalk Holiday Inn. Construction began in 2006 and the first resort (Vdara) opened in December 2009. Project City Center is now referred to as the "Aria Campus."

Aria Resort & Casino Las Vegas

Project City Center as seen in 2008. Structures include Aria, Vdara, Crystals Mall, Veer Towers, Mandarin Oriental (now known as Waldorf Astoria), the "63" shopping center which opened in 2023, and The Harmon condos which were defective and demolished in 2015 before being replaced with 63. MGM likely ran out of funds in 2009 and sold Treasure Island to Phil Ruffin for $775 million so that they could complete Project City Center. Ruffin now also owns Circus Circus, a former MGM property.

Aria Las Vegas as seen in 2011, which is the one time we've stayed there. It's very nice but didn't appeal to us as much as resorts like Wynn and Mandalay Bay. We were also "long hauled" from the airport during this trip, which was before there were taxi fare zones. The driver took us south to Henderson in a big circle then back up to Tropicana Blvd. and we were sitting in front of the airport at Tropicana & Paradise about 20 minutes later. He made a very convincing attempt to intimidate us and said we were breaking the law but we refused to back down, since we knew he was breaking the law and risking a $500 fine. We called the Las Vegas Taxi Authority when we arrived at Aria and told the cab driver we had to wait for them to show up to give him a ticket. He relented after 5 minutes and we let him leave rather than get the $500 fine. The free ride was enough to satisfy us.

Room service at Aria Las Vegas. If I recall correctly, the cost was $60 plus tip for a small pizza and a six pack of Heineken. This was in 2011.