Asian-themed megaresort planned for old Stardust site
By Richard N. Velotta (contact)
4 March 2013
An Asian gaming powerhouse is planning a $2 billion Asian-themed mega-resort on the Las Vegas Strip where the old Stardust was imploded and the stalled Echelon was planned.
Genting Group plans to build the 3,500-room Chinese-themed resort with a 175,000-square-foot casino. The company calls it the “first phase” of a property to be named Resorts World Las Vegas.
The company plans to build a replica of the Great Wall of China and develop an enclosure for pandas for public display.
Executives for the Genting Group, a Malaysian multinational company considered a gaming industry powerhouse in Asia, were introduced at a news conference this morning attended by Gov. Brian Sandoval, Clark County Commissioners Steve Sisolak and Chris Giunchigliani and local business leaders.
Boyd Gaming, the Las Vegas company that started and stopped construction of a resort it called Echelon, is selling the 87-acre site for $350 million to Genting, which says it will spend between $2 billion and $7 billion by the time the project is complete. The land sale is scheduled to close today.
The groundbreaking is planned for 2014, with the first phase opening in 2016. Technically, the project already is under way because Genting plans to use some of the Echelon superstructure already in place.
Phase 1 of the project will be 8 million square feet, with at least 3,500 rooms, 210,000 square feet of dining, 250,000 square feet of retail space, more than 500,000 square feet of convention space, a 4,000-seat theater, and 300,000 square feet of pool and water park features.
Genting, based in Kuala Lumpur, has casino properties in Malaysia, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the Bahamas. It may be best known as Las Vegas Sands’ rival in Singapore, where it operates Resorts World Sentosa, one of two casinos authorized by Singapore’s government.
Sentosa is an island off Singapore’s shore, and the resort complex includes a Universal Studios theme park. Resorts Worlds Sentosa reported gaming revenue of nearly $3 billion in 2012.
Genting also operates the casino with the largest slot machine floor in the world at the Aqueduct Race Track in New York City and proposed building a major convention center there, a project that was rejected last summer.
Genting is a 45 percent owner of the Norwegian Cruise Line and Star Cruises brands.