Boyd Gaming Presses Pause on $4.8B Vegas Casino-Resort
August 14, 2008
Construction crews working on the Echelon, one of several highly anticipated mega-resorts planned for the Las Vegas Strip, will be taking an extended break effective immediately, casino operator Boyd Gaming Corp. announced last week. The developer said work will stop on the casino-resort for nine months to a year due to decreasing consumer spending and poor credit market conditions.
"The current economic climate is unprecedented in recent years," Boyd President and CEO Keith Smith said in a statement. "While we remain enthusiastic about the long-term prospects for the Las Vegas market and Echelon, this is the right decision for our company at this time. This decision is not a reflection of the merits of the project, nor the accomplishments of our professional development team, but rather the challenges we, and many other businesses, face in today's uncertain business climate."
Boyd broke ground on the Echelon in June but was unable to obtain financing for key pieces of the development. It says it will return to the $4.8 billion project—which is slated to include a 140,000-square-foot casino, nearly 5,000 guest rooms in five hotels, two theaters, and about 750,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space—as soon as the U.S. economy improves.
"We remain fully committed to Echelon, and convinced that it will produce long-term, sustainable growth for our company in the years to come," Smith continued. "We look forward to resuming construction as soon as we are able to do so."
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