Could Las Vegas to Turn Its Abandoned “Matchsticks” Into a Heart-Shaped Hotel?

Vegas Is About to Get More Heart

A 29‑story heart is about to rise where a wheel once failed, and only in Las Vegas would that sentence make any sense.

From Wheel to Heart Shaped Resort

Developers have officially revived the long‑abandoned SkyVue site—the one with the two massive concrete columns that have loomed over the south side of the strip for more than a decade like forgotten Stonehenge souvenirs. Instead of finally finishing the Ferris wheel, the plan now is far more Vegas: a heart‑shaped resort that looks like it was sketched during a late‑night brainstorm fueled by neon, ambition, and maybe a little fatigue.

The proposed tower, recently approved by Clark County, will sit just east of Mandalay Bay, directly in the sightline of anyone cruising north on the freeway. The developers are betting big that weird architecture is good architecture—especially when it’s visible to thousands of daily commuters and tourists arriving from the airport. Early renderings show a glossy, red‑toned exterior with a dramatic central void forming the heart’s “V,” giving the building a sculptural silhouette unlike anything you would see in other more sane cities.

The Wheel Legacy Lives On

Even better, the project cleverly repurposes the SkyVue columns rather than demolishing them. Those hulking supports—once intended to anchor a 500‑foot observation wheel—will now serve as part of the resort’s structural backbone. It’s a redemption arc in concrete.

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If built as envisioned, the Heart Hotel could become one of Vegas’s most photographed newcomers, a landmark that transforms a long‑running question mark into a love‑letter‑shaped bigger question mark, because head scratching and wondering is part of the allure of a place that dares to build large, interesting resorts that maybe indicate that it should get some sleep.