At the opening party of the swanky new Hard Rock Hotel Thursday in Manhattan, fashionable guests lined up to sample bluefin tuna delicately carved off the fish in front of them and a freshly grilled mushroom hors d’oeuvre topped with a generous slice of truffle.

Yet Jim Allen, the CEO of Hard Rock International and the chairperson of Seminole Gaming, is already looking ahead to his next big project, a new resort hotel on the current site of The Mirage on the Las Vegas Strip, and what it will cost to build.

“Prices for building materials have just exploded,” he said.