Tampa's Hard Rock Casino, already one of the largest in the world, just announced its largest expansion ever

With more than 4,000 slot machines and 125 table games, the Seminole Hard Rock Casino Tampa is already one of the largest casinos in the world, but a new $700 million expansion will make the resort even more of a destination.

The roughly 24-month expansion will add nearly 1,000 slot machines and 75 table games, but the real focus of this expansion is the non-gaming aspects. When finished, the casino floor will be one of the largest in the world, clocking in at roughly 200,000 square feet of gaming floor space.

A new 15-story hotel tower is currently under construction next to the resort’s current 12-story tower. The new tower will have 564 new rooms, including 79 new suites. The top level of the new tower will have a private gaming parlor that VIP guests can access via a private elevator.

Between the towers, a new pool deck is also being built with three separate pools and a 120-seat Pool Grille restaurant. The deck on the second level will overlook I-4 and the Florida State Fairgrounds. Hard Rock has confirmed that the new deck, roughly the size of a football field, will be a “hot spot for frequent special events for casino guests with the inclusion of day and night life activations.”

On the same level as the pool deck, but just inside the glass-covered new tower, will be the Rock Spa and Salon. This 25,000-square-foot spa will offer new poolside services and will replace the much smaller spa that is currently found on the ground level near the current entrance.

The pool deck restaurant won’t be the only one added to the resort. A new 200-seat Italian restaurant will open next fall, and updates are planned for the existing Hard Rock Café, Fresh Harvest Buffet, Plum VIP Lounge and the food court. Rise Kitchen and Bakery will move into a larger space in the expansion tower.

Retail offerings will increase dramatically with six additional retail shops being added to the resort’s current to retail outlets.

All of these additions are impressive, but the thing that may change the feel of the resort the most is the new 30,000-square-foot Seminole Hard Rock Event Center. The new entertainment complex will include a 17,000-square-foot ballroom designed for various events including concerts, trade shows and large-scale poker tournaments.
Parking at the Tampa casino can be difficult to find, but as part of the expansion 700 more spaces are being added, bringing the property-wide total to 6,000 across four large garages.

One thousand new jobs at the resort are being created as part of the expansion, as well as an estimated 2,000 construction jobs and another 1,022 indirect permanent jobs all thanks to the expansion.

“Our team members are the backbone of our operation, and we value their attention to detail and focus on guest care,” said Joe Lupo, president of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa. “In addition to enhancing our guest experience and offering a premiere resort entertainment destination, this expansion will offer more growth opportunities for our team members.”

The Seminole Tribe is in the midst of a $2.5 billion economic investment that also includes a massive new, guitar-shaped tower at their Hollywood, Florida, location. That resort is also now home to the Hard Rock headquarters after the Seminoles closed the headquarters in Orlando's MetroWest community as part of a consolidation plan that saw a number of Seminole-owned businesses being moved to the Hollywood resort.

While final designs of the tower have yet to be shared, those renderings that have been shared seem to confirm that the Tampa resort won’t be receiving its own guitar-shaped tower.

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