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In
1990 Kirk Kerkorian bought the Marina Hotel to obtain the
site that would become the home of the MGM Grand. During that
time, the Marina was known as the MGM-Marina Hotel. The Marina
closed on November 30, 1991, and ground was broken on October
7, 1991.
On
February 23, 1993, MGM celebrated a "topping off"
ceremony with the placement of the last panel of emerald green
glass hoisted onto one of the 30-story hotel towers. A total
of 5,005 green balloons were released, each containing a gift
certificate valid for one complimentary stay in one of the
rooms.
When
the latest MGM Grand opened on December 18, 1993, it was owned
by MGM Grand Inc. At that time it had an extensive Wizard
of Oz theme, including the green "Emerald City"
color of the building and the decorative use of Wizard of
Oz memorabilia.
The
MGM Grand was the home of the long-running production show
EFX from 1995 until 2002.
When the MGM Grand opened, the intention was to create the
first true destination hotel in Las Vegas by including the
MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park behind the casino. The plan
was to make Las Vegas more "family friendly" by
providing activities for children who were too young to be
allowed to linger inside the casino. The theme park performed
poorly, and did not reopen for the 2001 season. On December
5, 2002, MGM Mirage announced that the former theme park would
be developed as a luxury condominium and hotel complex called
The Signature.
A
monorail was built to connect the MGM Grand to Bally's in
1995. The coming out party for the monorail on behalf of Bally's
consisted of showgirls and guys from Jubilee helping the groups
to the monorail. Characters from the Wizard of Oz greeted
the groups on the MGM side. The track was later updated to
became the southernmost section of the Las Vegas Monorail.
The station was refurbished, the trains were replaced with
Bombardier M-VI's, and the track was extended beyond the southern
station to provide for track switching for the trains as well
as a starting point for a potential future southern extension
to the monorail line.
In
2000, in an attempt to appeal to a more mature clientèle,
the hotel underwent a major renovation and almost all traces
of the "Oz" theme were removed. The theme is now
more of the Art Deco era of classic Hollywood and the hotel
started billing itself as The City of Entertainment.
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