Echelon Place spent $500M, then the cranes stopped for thirteen years

Boyd Gaming announced Echelon on 3 January 2006: a $4 billion replacement for the Stardust on the Las Vegas Strip, soon revised to $4.8 billion as construction costs rose — 5,300 rooms across four hotels. Groundbreaking came on 19 June 2007, at the top of the market.

On 1 August 2008, with about $500 million of capitalised costs already in the ground, Boyd halted construction, blaming 'challenging economic conditions' and the 'difficult environment surrounding today's capital markets'. CEO Keith Smith called the climate 'unprecedented in recent years' and promised to resume within three to four quarters; Boyd also suspended its dividend the same day. The resume never came — by October 2009 the suspension had grown to three to five years.

The half-built shell stood on the Strip for years, wrapped and silent. In March 2013 Boyd sold the site to Malaysia's Genting Group for $350 million — against $4.8 billion of plans and $500 million of work. Genting rebuilt it as Resorts World Las Vegas, which opened on 24 June 2021.