KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 11): Construction of Genting Group's planned US$4 bil (RM17.9 billion) Resorts World Las Vegas in the U.S. could begin soon, as site preparation work progresses for the 3,000-room Chinese-themed property, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported today.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal quoted Genting Americas senior vice president of public affairs Michael Levoff as saying that new onsite equipment within the 35ha (87 acre) Las Vegas Strip tract would be used to verify construction works by Boyd Gaming, when it initiated its Echelon Place hotel, casino, shopping and convention project.

In August 2008, Boyd stopped Echelon's construction and sold the unfinished project to Genting in March 2013. Today, Levoff said Genting opted to include some of the unfinished structures in Resorts World Las Vegas.

“We’re continuing to expand our site preparation work, in advance of full project mobilisation,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Review-Journal quoted a Resorts World Las Vegas construction worker as saying that a tall aerial work platform was placed on the site, to inspect scaffolding on a tower construction site.

It was reported that workers were inspecting the scaffolding, before construction cranes arrive this March.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported: "Last year, the company said it expected a 2019 opening, after numerous delays in the start of construction."

"As envisioned by Genting, the resort, on 87 acres, would include a 110,000-square-foot casino, a 3,200-seat theater [and] 150,000 square feet of convention space, and would be the first Strip mega resort to be built since the Cosmopolitan opened in December 2010," Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote. — theedgemarkets.com