Plans to rebuild the Sahara, a project that could begin by the end of the year, came as good news to Boyd Gaming executives, but they say it is much too early to determine whether Boyd may be closer to a restart of its Echelon development.

“We continue to monitor the situation,” Boyd CEO Keith Smith said, “and try to determine when it is we should take another look at (Echelon), but we do not have a solid view right now. We are monitoring it, still trying to understand when (Echelon) may be restarted. Our last statement was that we believe it is three to five years in the future.

“I think that is still our feeling today.”

Boyd is “encouraged” by continuing trends along the Strip that point toward a recovering economy. Improving occupancy numbers and visitor counts that have been edging higher are all “positives,” Smith, acknowledged, “but we are not ready to make a decision today.”

He might have also been tempted to point out that announcing a plan for the site of the former Sahara is not the same thing as starting and completing that plan. A number of big plans crashed and burned, so to speak, or were put back on the shelf as developers were knocked for a loop by the Great Recession of the last several years.

Boyd, like a number of gaming companies, is more likely to invest in opportunities outside Nevada for the next couple of years, although they can be counted on to pay close attention to announcements concerning the Fontainebleau (south of the Sahara) or the MGM acreage (opposite the Sahara).

In the meantime, Boyd is looking for acquisitions elsewhere, deals that could help bulk up its all-important database.

“We are looking in markets that would be strategic to us, places that we are not in today,” Smith said. “We will be very careful not to buy an asset that we don’t think we can improve.”