Resort To Rise From Stardust

Boyd Gaming Corp. plans to raze the old Stardust Resort & Casino and make way for Echelon Palace, a $4 billion resort/casino complex on the 63- acre site.

The project, scheduled to open in 2010, will include four hotels with 5,300 guest rooms and suites, a 140,000-square-foot casino, theatres, a shopping promenade, spas and acres of convention space, making it one of the largest developments on the Las Vegas Strip.

The January 4th announcement of the “second phase” of Boyd’s entry into the top tier of premier resorts comes in the wake of its success with the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, N.J., which Boyd co-owns with MGM Mirage. The Borgata is said to be the most profitable casino in the city.

“We will draw upon our highly successful Borgata experience and are committed to developing a resort destination that can be counted among the best in Las Vegas,” said Bob Boughner, president and chief exec of Echelon Resorts. Boughner held the same position at the Borgata.

In addition to two Echelon Resort hotels anchoring the project, the complex will sport two boutique hotels in a joint venture with Morgans Hotel Group: the Delano Hotel Las Vegas and Mondrian Hotel Las Vegas, based on counterparts in Miami Beach, Fla., and Los Angeles respectively.

One feature that won’t be part of Boyd’s plans, unlike other new megaresort structures in the works, is high-rise condominiums.

Boughner said Boyd decided to buck that trend because pre-selling condo units can be an unpredictable process.

“In the long term, owning the hotel outright, having the greatest amount of flexibility and not having to go through that process, would better serve our needs,” he said. “We’d rather have one owner than 236,000 owners.”