Las Vegas -- Boyd Gaming plans to develop a resort on the Las Vegas Strip consisting of four hotels, totaling 5,300 guest rooms, and more than one million square feet of meeting space.
Announced Wednesday, the $4-billion Echelon Place is to consist of the following:
--Echelon Resort, composed of the 2,600-room Resort Tower and 700-room Suite Tower, each with its own spa. To be operated by Boyd, the resort will also contain a casino, 4,000-seat theater, 1,500-seat theater, and 25 bars and restaurants combined.
--Shangri-La Hotel, with 400 rooms, a spa, and two restaurants. The Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels, which owns the Shangri-La brand of 40 upscale hotels in Asia and the Middle East, will operate the hotel, the company's first property in the United States.
--Delano Hotel, with 600 rooms, and Mondrian Hotel, with 1,000 rooms, both to be managed by Morgans Hotel Group, the company led by boutique-hotel innovator Ian Schrager.
--Las Vegas ExpoCenter, containing 650,000 square feet of exhibit and function space and 175,000 square feet of meeting space. Combined with the meeting space within Echelon Resort, the total meeting and exhibit space at Echelon Place is planned to exceed one million square feet, highlighted by more than 200 meeting rooms.
--A shopping and dining complex totaling more than 350,000 square feet.
Boyd's 63-acre site for the planned resort is currently occupied by the 1,500-room Stardust Hotel, which the company said it will continue to operate through this year. Boyd plans to demolish the Stardust, which opened in 1958, to make way for Echelon Place. The new resort is expected to open in 2010.