Full-scale construction for Resorts World Las Vegas is expected to start in the last quarter of 2016, with plans for the casino resort to open on the Las Vegas Strip in 2019.
Developers of the resort was originally eyeing a 2018 opening for the $4 billion Chinese-themed resort, but Resorts World general counsel Gerald Gardner told the Nevada Gaming Control Board early this week that the opening date was pushed back for another year.
The executive was quoted by Vegas Inc saying the delay was due to the ongoing work on the casino resort’s “complex design” as well as the Malaysian currency, which has affected the timeline.
Gardner told the gaming control board to expect site activity to ramp up this summer, but major construction will get underway in the last three months of the year. The company expects to create some 5,000 direct construction jobs once the building activity is in full swing.
Resorts World will also hire about 2,500 full-time employees in time for the integrated resort’s opening, Gardner said.
Resorts World broke ground at the former site of the Stardust Hotel around this time last year.
The four-tower, 3,500-room casino resort is expected to plug the hole left by Boyd Gaming’s aborted Echelon project. Designs for Resorts World Las Vegas include a gaming floor that will occupy an estimated 175,000 square feet as well as non-gaming amenities such as an indoor waterpark, a 4,000-seat theater, and a replica of the Great Wall of China with some real live pandas to complete the Oriental vibe.
Resorts World Las Vegas is the first Vegas mega-property wholly developed by an international firm—Genting Malaysia, which also has gaming interests in Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the Philippines.
Genting chair K.T. Lim, who was also present during Wednesday’s meeting, vowed to create a “new and unique” destination that will complement the Strip’s existing resorts.
