Boyd plans $4 billion hotel on Las Vegas Strip

updated 11:20 a.m. ET Jan. 4, 2006

LAS VEGAS - Boyd Gaming Corp. plans to tear down the old Stardust casino to make way for a $4 billion hotel and casino complex on 63 acres of the Las Vegas Strip — one of the largest such developments planned in a town known for mega projects.

The complex, to be called Echelon Place, is scheduled to open in 2010 on the northern end of the strip, the company announced Wednesday. It will include four hotels with 5,300 guest rooms and suites, a 140,000-square-foot casino, theaters, a shopping promenade, spas and acres of convention space.

The site currently houses the aging, 1,500-room Stardust, home to “Mr. Las Vegas” singer Wayne Newton.

Boyd also owns the recently opened South Coast casino in Las Vegas as well as properties in Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi and New Jersey.

Boyd said it plans to continue operating the Stardust through 2006, though in the first quarter it will record a charge of $50 million to $60 million, before taxes, for the pending casino closure.

The company also said Bob Boughner will leave his position at Boyd’s Borgata casino in Atlantic City, N.J., to head the new complex.

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