Things That Will Never Happen On The Strip, Part 1.

Check out THIS hilarious thing. HE'S a big guy, no?

This is what Genting is "planning" to build on the dusty plot next to Circus Circus on the north end of the Strip. This was already under construction as something called the Echelon project that was summarily executed when the '08-'09 financial crash hit Vegas hard. Apparently it's going to be re-imagined into a massive, $4 billion, 3000 room Asian themed mega-resort with all kinds of bells and whistles.

It's also vapor ware. Sure, SOMETHING will get built, construction is under way, but if you see as much as half of what's in that rendering when all is said and done I'll be surprised. There's a reason the north end of the Strip is a wasteland right now...it a FUCKING HAUL to get there from the heart of the Strip. I made the mistake on my second trip to Vegas of staying at the Stratosphere, north of Sahara Blvd. Just getting from there to the site of the old Sahara is a long walk, it's another mile+ to get anywhere near the Mirage, which is STILL a haul to get to the real center of the Strip around Cosmo/Paris.

I made the tactical error on that trip of walking, in one day, from the Strat all the way to NYNY and back. I'm a pretty healthy dude and I don't mind walking, but I felt like crying by the end of either the up or down legs. A tram ride from Aria-Bellagio can get you part of the way, but I see no tram extension in the renderings of Resorts World. The Monorail on the other side can get you all the way up and down, but then you're on the wrong side of the Strip and it's not free to ride.

The other issue is...who's going to spring for these presumably expensive rooms when the Strip's already flooded with cheap accommodations? You have to pay for all that construction somehow, and you sure can't discount your rooms to $30/night like the ancient Riviera to do it. Will anyone be so bowled over by a Chinese-themed golden palace that they'll pay a premium to stay there over the Wynn/Encore, an established brand? Or the Bellagio? Or even the new SLS? Adding 3000 more rooms to an already saturated Strip seems risky as hell right now.

On the plus side though, if this does end up being half as impressive as it looks on paper, it could have a re-vitalizing effect on the dead northern end of the Strip. Wynn/Encore are kind of the Lone Rangers up there right now, at least until SLS opens in the fall; maybe this could spur the other big resort players into stepping up their game up north. Perhaps MGM diverts some of the scad-loads of cash they're pumping onto the south end with the NYNY/Monte Carlo Strip facade and arena work into the long neglected Circus Circus (poor thing's not even in Mlife). Maybe someone will drop a dime on the Riviera, put that thing out of its misery and build something modern in its place as has happened with the Sahara. Who knows, maybe someone will even finish off/tear down and rebuild the Fontainebleau (yeah, right).

So while nothing like that rendering will end up getting done, even a third of that ambition might be enough, along with the SLS, to jump start the north Strip's heart and make it worth the shoe leather to go see again.

It may at least give me a reason to step a foot north of the Mirage again.