The Sahara first gave a hint that change was afoot the same day Cit圜enter's anchor casino, Aria, opened with 4,000 rooms in 2009. And a $5 billion complex that was supposed to replace the New Frontier never materialized. could build its $4.8 billion Echelon complex, the project stalled. After the Stardust was razed in 2007 so Boyd Gaming Corp. The former site of the Landmark hotel, whose implosion in 1995 was included in the movie 'Mars Attacks,' now holds a parking lot for the Las Vegas Convention Center. There's no guarantee something glamorous will emerge. Billionaire Carl Icahn, who ultimately bought the property, sold its furniture to a casino on the California-Nevada border and hasn't said when construction might resume.
The unfinished multibillion-dollar Fontainebleau development that filed for bankruptcy court protection is nearby. Ruffin said the Sahara's neighborhood looks 'very bad.'
