Officials with the Nevada Gaming Control Board recommended a gaming license for Genting Berhad, the investment arm of Genting Group. The matter is scheduled for a second round of scrutiny May 22 before the Nevada Gaming Commission.
Officials with Genting, which operates casinos in the Asia, the United Kingdom, the Bahamas and New York, told regulators they plan to break ground this year on Resorts World Las Vegas. The project would incorporate 80 percent to 85 percent of the buildings in the partially built Echelon project and directly create about 8,500 jobs.
The initial phase is expected to include 3,000 hotel rooms, a large casino, a 4,000-seat theater with a rotating schedule of shows and a lush garden attraction. Company officials said they're also considering adding a 20th Century Fox theme park similar to one planned at a Genting property in Malaysia.
The project could breathe new life into the tired north end of the tourist corridor where several projects stalled during the recession. It comes as developers finish work on the SLS Las Vegas, a 1,600-room resort that's rising from the site of the shuttered Sahara hotel-casino and is scheduled to be open to the public over Labor Day weekend.
Genting executives said their company, Southeast Asia's largest casino operator, is ideally positioned to capitalize on a growing number of foreign tourists flocking to the Strip. A design aimed at making Asian customers feel at home calls for a shopping center that resembles a Chinese village and perhaps even a panda attraction, although company officials said Wednesday that scoring the animals is complicated.
Genting bought the property last year from Boyd Gaming at a cost of $350 million. Boyd had started building a $4.8 billion, six-hotel complex on the site of the former Stardust casino when the recession hit.
The Echelon's steel-and-concrete skeleton has stood dormant since 2008.
Why would anyone want to invest so much? Reno, Vegas and Nevada are slowing down a bit, what in our future indicates a great boost in our economy? I just don't see where all the money is coming from. I guess when you have FOUR BILLION to invest, you must know something.
