Echelon Las Vegas

Right now, the Echelon Las Vegas is locked well within the initial planning stages. Forty months and four billion dollars later, however, the Echelon Las Vegas will be at the forefront of luxury on the strip. At least, that's the idea. And though it won't be around until 2010, construction will begin in 2007, with the demolition of the Stardust Hotel - this is where the Echelon Resorts will eventually be located. So if you have a soft spot for the Stardust, you'd better get there fast.

The price tag on the Echelon Resort Las Vegas is not the only thing that's going to be enormous (though, at $4 billion, it will still only be the second most expensive undertaking on the strip, behind The Mirage). It will have the largest casino floor - at 140,000 square feet - not to mention millions of square feet of convention space and retail stores. Owners hope it will be the premier location for the highly-coveted luxury travelers, who often stay down the strip at The Venetian or Bellagio.

The Stardust will not give way to just one hotel, though - the Echelon Resorts will actually be a collection of smaller hotels - four, to be exact, whose total rooms will number at 5300. The Echelon in Las Vegas will consist of The Shangri-La Hotel, The Mondrian, The Delano and the main, eponymous resort. Each of the four hotels will be operated separately, though interconnected at every possible juncture. The idea was that four smaller, unique hotels would be more appealing to tourists, more intimate, as opposed to one giant, sprawling mega-hotel. Whether or not this is true remains to be seen, but it certainly brings a new aesthetic to the Vegas Strip.

The hotels will connect at the common areas of the Echelon Resort Las Vegas - primarily at the casino floor, but also at the two separate theaters that are destined to be a part of the complex, but also where the 25 planned restaurants and bars will be located, as well as a number of pool and garden areas.

The completion of the hotel will also breathe new life into the northern end of the Strip - oftentimes neglected due to the overwhelming success of the southern hotels like the MGM Grand and Caesar's Palace, the Echelon Las Vegas will bring added dollars to the surrounding casinos, too. Thus, the owners are being embraced with open arms by the neighboring hotels. Plus, the Echelon Las Vegas is the brainchild of Boyd Gaming, who has a long history of success in Sin City.

So, while it might be some time before you can enjoy everything the resorts have to offer, by 2010, there might be a new name synonymous with luxury in Las Vegas, and it might just be the Echelon Resorts.