Stardust Coming Down Mid-March

LAS VEGAS-The Stardust is getting harder to see from the freeway these days. With most of its innards and windows salvaged, one can look right through the structure before noticing it. Come March, it won’t be visible at all.

The implosion of the 48-year-old, 1,500-room casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip is scheduled to take place in the middle of the night in the middle of March, a source at Boyd Gaming tells GlobeSt.com. The company isn’t saying exactly when the implosion will take place for crowd control purposes, but says it plans to capture the event on tape.

In its 80-acre place will rise Eschelon Place, a $4-billion complex of hotels, casinos, entertainment venues and shopping that is scheduled to open in 2010. The plan includes 5,300 rooms in four hotels, a 140,000-sf casino, theaters, a shopping promenade, spas and convention space.