Boyd Gaming is to sell its unfinished Echelon resort in Las Vegas to Genting.
Genting will pay $350m in cash for the 87-acre site, which was once home to the Stardust. The project will be rebranded Resorts World Las Vegas, with the opening of phase one planned for 2015.
“This is an unparalleled opportunity to showcase what has made the Resorts World brand a globally recognised success for the past several decades,” chairman and CEO Lim Kok Thay said in a statement.
The uncompleted Echelon became a symbol of US real estate excesses and Las Vegas’ woes after Boyd stopped construction in August 2008. The project sits along the northern part of the Las Vegas Strip, near Wynn Resorts’ properties. It will feature more than 3,500 rooms in the first phase, 175,000sq.ft of gaming space, luxury dining and retail.
“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,” Governor Brian Sandoval said.
Genting, which owns one of the two casinos in Singapore, plans to use its name recognition in Asia to attract foreign travelers to Las Vegas.
Boyd began construction on the $4.75bn resort in 2007 before stopping a year later due to the financial crisis. The company said at the time it incurred $500m in capitalised expenses and that it would be three to five years before it would be interested in restarting.
