Joining the Dunes, Desert Inn, and the Sands, the storied and aged Stardust Hotel is slated to be destroyed to make room for a new $4 billion dollar mega resort called Echelon Place.

Unfortunately, over the years since opening in 1958, the Stardust has gone downhill and other than the occasional diversion for dollar craps or perhaps an inexpensive dinner at the Tony Romas in the casino, there hasn’t really been a reason to go there.

The hotel will be shut down in 2007 and demolished. In its place Echelon is slated to have 5,300 rooms spread over 4 hotels on the property (one called the Echelon resort, and the others being the Shangri-La, the Delano, and the Mondrian). There will be shopping, two theaters, a massive convention area and 140,000 square feet of casino space.

The development will be the second largest on the Las Vegas Strip — second only to MGM-Mirage’s City Center. That $6 billion project will be constructed between the Monte Carlo and Bellagio. No word on where Stardust regulars Don Rickles, the Temptations and Jackie Mason will go as I don’t see them playing at the new Mondrian. Perhaps Stardust’s loss will be Sam’s Town or Palace Station’s gain.

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Update: While we were writing this, a man and wife from San Ramon, California were winning Independent Sources‘ Worst Parent Award. Jacob and Michelle Calero were arrested after returning from their Las Vegas weekend. Their crime? They left their two kids, ages 9 and 5, by themselves for the entire weekend. The kids were left with ample cereal and told “not to open the door for anyone.” “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” indeed.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 5th, 2006 at 12:37 am by Insider and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.