LAS VEGAS | Boom Project Rundown! 2.0

[VegasMatt]

Originally Posted by Steven C.

If you see the plans for the new mcdonalds, it makes sense. They promise a renovation, but the plans make it look better than some casinos on the strip!

Where can we see the plans????

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by mdiederi

There are some new Echelon renderings in this Boyd investor presentation pdf (you have to scroll down a few pages).

Project CityCenter much? I'm very dissapointed, its nice but nothing new. Not impressed at the least. I agree, Echelon Resort Drive? wtf? I'm sorry but I expected much more, Hopefully they are just conceptual

Please excuse my language but,
Fuck Echeleon, Give me Stardust!!

[lfc4life]

Originally Posted by Steven C.

anyone else a little dissapointed they are going to rename stardust road to "echelon resort drive"?

At least keep a bit of history like the wynn and venetian did... keep the streets the same name

Not impressed at all. Can I be the first to say; Boyd knocked the Stardust tower for THAT As someone here said the old Stardust tower should have been incorporated into the new design.

Echelon Resort Drive

[future29]

i actually like the Echelon tower design. the thing i do not like is the strip frontage there. it seems like they could care less about presenting their casino along LV Blvd. the towers are facing perpendicular and there is a big parking lot on half of their land adjacent to the strip. it looks very underwhelming at this point. it does not look attractive to people coming along the strip and may actually detract visitors away because it is not a welcoming atmosphere. hopefully this changes with phase 2.

also, would love to see the McDonalds plans for their new, "better than a casino," building next to Echelon.

[mdiederi]

I'm sure the inside will be nice, but the outside looks drab. The main tower at Echelon looks like there are no windows on the ends of the tower so that means that the way it is positioned they will have a giant solid shaft facing the main entrance on the strip. Very bad Feng shui! The Mondrian and Delano look like boring office buildings. Shangri La looks like an afterthought stuck on the back of the main tower with a great view of Circus Circus and the loading dock and no view of the strip at all, is that really where you want to put your high-rollers? Also looks like you are going to have to walk a mile from the parking garage to the casino.

[hotdog]

The curved Echelon tower is nice, and I can't blame them for rotating that building such, to block the view of Circus Circus and other properties they don't own. And the parking lot along LV blvd is just temporary. But those two small buildings to the south are boring (at least in that picture) and should be rotated so that they screen the parking garage more (put them towards the west of those pools).

[gmcclenon]

Quote
i actually like the Echelon tower design. the thing i do not like is the strip frontage there. it seems like they could care less about presenting their casino along LV Blvd. the towers are facing perpendicular and there is a big parking lot on half of their land adjacent to the strip. it looks very underwhelming at this point. it does not look attractive to people coming along the strip and may actually detract visitors away because it is not a welcoming atmosphere. hopefully this changes with phase 2.




Yeah! What is up with that? Why couldn't they put up an interesting water feature or just landscaping along the strip? But an access road and a parking lot for all of us to look at while walking down the street? Why wrap it so far around? Guess they're not expecting much foot traffic from the north. That is short sighted. Like you said, maybe they figure on spending the money on phase 2 after all the new developments are in to the north. Guess that means we'll have 6 or 7 years of looking at that parking lot.

[ScottG]

we were under the impression echelon would be like city center- its the same size/bigger and costs just as much...but how? there are 2 highrises that look like walls and 1 mid rise that looks like the stardust. sure that could be phase 1 considering half the site is level parking but still theres no aw moments here.....UNLESS...

like ANY project the first renderings look nothing like the final result.....pray

[ScottG]

PATRICK wated no time making a diagram for echelon, but i must say he's making the tower look nice. maybe i spoke too soon (above) i may like that tower better than city cente's main tower (ok maybe not)

and echelon updated their website---i think, but no renderings i could find.

good job pat!

[VegasMatt]

Great job, with the rendering Pat!

I have to agree with the board here with the consonance about the Strip frontage here. WTF. I hope they have a better plan than a parking lot up front, that they aren’t showing yet.

However, I think people are being overly harsh on the main tower, other than the odd positioning I don’t think it looks bad. The tower will be huge, and it has some serious height. They could’ve done a lot worse with it. That being said I have to agree again with the community about the smaller towers. Very office like, and I highly prefer fantastical designs with resorts. This was same criticism with CityCenter. Don’t get me wrong, I love the CityCenter project and it’s a minor criticism.

None the less, everyone should be happy the north end is getting some much-needed attention.

I guess, overall, I’m just relieved it’s no Boratoga monstrosity.

[ScottG]

its funny how the newest proposal is the tallest...again. vegastat has a good picture showing wynn the tallest, then trump taller, then palazzo, taller, and encore becoming the tallest (something like that)

basically each new project comes out taller the the previous. now echelon is winning that race.

i find it funy that the amin tower is facing north south and not the strip. why? because across the strip is a small shopping center...a denny's. nothing to look at. citycenter had the same issue. across the strip is the very successful (sarcasm) hawaiin market place. so what did mgm do? they built their own views and placed 4 towers in front for everyone to look at.

[NYC2ATX]

I'm not so impressed by Echelon either. It does seem like a citycenter knock-off, and it also seems like citycenter put more thought into their complex. Major architects, green designs, a "city" within itself. Echelon just seems like more hotel rooms after that. As it progresses though, we may hear more pros to these cons, hopefully.

[jazfingr]

I must agree with most of you about the overall design of Echelon Place being shortsighted.

Take the center-strip area in front of Harrah's/Ip/Flamingo. The casinos are close to the street, and the street is alive with folks having fun. Now, go across the street to Caesars. Nothing there is strip close, the peds are just walking (not having fun). Caesars is fixing this by filling the waist of space on the south corner, with a casino and shops.

You would think Boyd would realize that the north strip will someday be alive with foot traffic. Especially with Fontainebleau under-way and Sahara being reinvented. Maybe I'm just bitter because I miss the Stardust...naw, it is a bad plan.

The main resort tower is OK looking, the Shangra La is stupid (location and view-wise. The only strip-close entrance is another Fu**$ng mall. and the parking is too far from the casino. The other hotel towers look corporate now, but may look good as the renderings become more mature. The surface parking lot will become phase-two, but who wants to bet it will be a residential element and have no public access or casino.

It seems Boyd Gaming is full of yes-men who agree to anything without contest or logical thought.

[philip]

I kind of knew Echelon will a watered-down version of City Center as I said on this board before, but I didn't know it will be this bad.

I wonder why Shangri-la would ever accept a location like that. It's right on the butt crack of the Echelon's Main towers, in the back where nobody will ever see it (as most people approach from the south). In the future, if they do build more towers along LV Blvd (Phase 2), it will completely block the view of the Shangri-la and Shangri-la hotel guests will stuck in the shadow of the neighboring towers with absolutely the worst view you can find in the city.

On the other hand, the mandarin Oriental was given a prime real estate out in the front of the city center. No wonder their multi-million-dollar condos were sold out in 2 weeks.

Architecture designs are paramount for the success of a casino, PERIOD. Look at Aladdin. The only reason why it failed was the bad design, inside and out. Echelon better finds a good architect to work on the facade; otherwise, this place will become Aladdin 2 and go bankrupt soon after its completion.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by ScottG

PATRICK wated no time making a diagram for echelon, but i must say he's making the tower look nice. good job pat!

Really?? I hate the diagram, it turned out so undetailed. I tried everything but I still dont like it, oh well.

[The_Analyst]

Originally Posted by LMich

Can someone explain exactly happened to Renaissance, here? I'm really not savy when it comes to the business aspect of development. I read the article and came out of it being more confused. lol Did the Los Angeles party become the new owners of the project, or just additional owners?

The article is a little short on exact details but it appears that this architect is taking an ownership interest in the property. It's possible that they did some design/engineering work for the developer and were owed money. Since the developer couldn't pay them, they put a lien on the development. Now it appears the developer cannot pay the lien and so the lienholder (the architects) is taking over the property. Since the architects were owed less than the full property value, they basically are buying out the project for the difference between what they were owed and the value of the property. It also indicates that the developer owed the original landowner who has agreed to extend the terms of the land sale to allow the development to reorganize (in which case they will likely seek new financing for a scaled down project that may be more attractive to lenders).

[The_Analyst]

I hate to bring this up, but the "Las Vegas Boom" graphic on page 1 now features two completely dead projects (Club Ren and 888) and one nearly so (LV Central). It may be time to update that.

[justdefended]

The building blocks of Echelon really need to be moved around. I can see how they want the project to face the South to invite people toward the property and generate North and South views for the main resort, but once visitors walk there they'll be face to face with an uninviting tiny corner parcel of land and a roadway access street.

It also looks like it'll take forever to get to the main resort from the corner entrance. The non-gaming boutique hotels have direct street access for pedestrians, but don't need it since most will want to head to the main resort.

Compare this to CityCenter where the retail and entertainment district, boutique hotels, and main resort have direct street and pedestrian access.

Next Aladdin here we come!

[philip]

Originally Posted by justdefended

Next Aladdin here we come!

Exactly, sad to see a project to go bust, especially when billions of dollars are being spent.

But this time there will be no buyer for Echelon when it goes bankrupt, since the orientation of the buildings are so awful, they may have to demolish the whole complex to start over. On the other hand, the Aladdin building has a good orientation so only cosmetic changes are needed to fix the resort.

[philip]

[Quote=ScottG]PATRICK wated no time making a diagram for echelon, but i must say he's making the tower look nice. good job pat!

Originally Posted by Patrick

Really?? I hate the diagram, it turned out so undetailed. I tried everything but I still dont like it, oh well.

Even after beautifying the design, Patrick still doesn't like it. A testimony to how awful the real design must be.