Las Vegas: Asian-influenced mega-resort to open in 2016

Resorts World Las Vegas, the city’s first new mega-resort in six years and scheduled to open in 2016, will have such Asian influences as a replica of the great Wall of China and a panda preserve.

Resorts World is to open on the site of the former Stardust Hotel-Casino. The 87-acre development will rise at Las Vegas Boulevard and Desert Inn Road, just south of Circus Circus and cater-corner from Wynn-Encore.

The multibillion-dollar project is the brainchild of Malaysia-based Genting Group. The development will feature 3,500 hotel rooms in its first phase, along with a multi-story casino, upscale restaurants and high-end shopping.

Genting paid $350 million to acquire the land and the concrete skeletons of some buildings from Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming, the Associated Press reported. It had planned an expansive, multi-hotel project named Echelon, but after imploding the Stardust in 2007 and beginning construction, the resort was mothballed during the economic downturn.

An artist’s rendering of Resorts World Las Vegas highlights the property’s Asian influences. A replica of the Great Wall of China, facing the Strip, will wind through the property adjacent to red-roofed, pagoda-style buildings that will be dwarfed by the towering hotel. A panda habitat is also in the works, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Although it’s a newcomer to Las Vegas, Genting’s Resorts World brand is well-known elsewhere. The company operates casinos in the Bahamas, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and the United Kingdom. Its first U.S. casino opened 16 months ago near New York’s Kennedy International Airport.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval noted that the sprawling project will bring “several thousand new jobs” to the state’s still-stagnant economy.

“The entrance of one of the world’s leading resort gaming developers into Nevada is another fantastic sign that Las Vegas and the Strip are poised for great things moving forward in 2013 and beyond,” Sandoval said in a statement.

Genting plans to break ground next year and expects a 2016 opening. The last major resort built along the Strip was the Cosmopolitan, which opened in December 2010.

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