Blackstone buying Hilton Hotels for $26 billion [Orlando Sentinel]

Yes we done growed up and moved, check us out at the new Find Paradise blog.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, A stately pleasure-dome decree…

Boyd Gaming officially began construction of it’s $4.8 billion Echelon resort project, taking up the spot where the recently imploded Stardust stood. The project will contain 5 hotels surrounding a vast entertainment and casino complex.

Echelon’s five hotels will all have separate entrances and lobbies. But the entire development, including the 140,000-square-foot casino, the meeting space and retail promenade, will be interconnected. A guest, conceivably, could walk the entire facility without ever venturing outside.

“The idea was to create different experiences and environments for the guest,” said Echelon President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Boughner, who is overseeing the project. Boughner, a longtime Boyd Gaming executive, headed construction and development of Borgata before heading back to Las Vegas last year.

STRIP DEVELOPMENT: Echelon gets off to cool start [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

(Title quote from the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem.)

Yes we done growed up and moved, check us out at the new Find Paradise blog.

Wynn VP of Design named on Architectural Digest’s 100

Interesting article on the history of Wynn (prior and new hotels) design philosophy, as well as a breakdown of the opulence of the Wynn’s (hotel) Villas.

“I never looked at the price tag of anything when I was designing the villas,” maintains Thomas. “We looked at it in terms of what was going to make the experience more phenomenal. If we can make our guests feel a heightened sense of romance and drama and comfort, along with every convenience within fingertip reach, that’s what it’s all about.” God is in the details. Barrel vaulted, domed and coffered ceilings, for instance, that are 12 feet high—“like the great private spaces in Paris or Rome.” Floors that are clad in handpicked onyx and handwoven carpets. Walls upholstered in hand-embroidered fabric. Showers with heated mirrors set in slabs of marble, closets lined in macassar ebony and silk. The touch of a button summons the butler, adjusts the room temperature (or lighting), closes the draperies, activates the spa jets or makes the flat screen TV pop up in the bar or at the foot of the bed.

Villas at Wynn Las Vegas with Roger Thomas [Architectural Digest]

(Link courtesy of Two Way Hard Three)

Yes we done growed up and moved, check us out at the new Find Paradise blog.

Golden Nugget reports profit

The largest casino downtown, along with a sister Golden Nugget in Laughlin, is managing to turn a profit for its corporate owners.
In a limited statement to investors Thursday, Houston-based Landry’s, the Golden Nugget’s corporate parent, reported the casinos made $21 million in profit in the first quarter of 2007 that ended March 31, compared to $16.3 million in the same period last year. Revenue was $70.7 million, up from $63.4 million in the first quarter of 2006.

I’ve only visited the Fremont (Downtown/old Vegas) area once in our many trips to Vegas. It’s area is filled with fried oreos, $0.50 roulette, lots of overhead blinking lights and all the touristy crap you would imagine, so it’s great to hear that one of the older Vegas casinos is doing so well.

A glimmer of gold for downtown [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

Yes we done growed up and moved, check us out at the new Find Paradise blog.