Elvis returns to Vegas?

He just might do that. Unfortunately for the fans of the great entertainer it's only his name that is thinking about a comeback. Nothing else. Elvis won't be in the building.

A real estate firm out of New York a short time ago acquired total control of 18 acres of land between MGM Grand and Planet Hollywood. It can be said that this is prime territory right on the Strip. The company has aims to develop a mixed-use project on the site that would include residential, in short condominiums, hotel, retail and casino components.

How Elvis fits in the picture is that the firm owns licensing rights to his estate. And since the rock and roll star was such an important fixture in the Vegas scene for so long, they feel that adding an Elvis-theme somewhere in the development would be appropriate. Thus far the company hasn't announced any timeline for the project.

There are also skeptics toward the plan. Mostly they are the tenants who presently operate businesses on the 18-acre parcel. For the past 10 years they've heard all sorts of proposals for it and emphasize that nothing has happened yet. The location is attractive, though, that much we have to agree on.

It's true, Vegas has seen over the years many a developer from out of town wanting to build the world's best casino here and after the initial hoopla dies down, they fade into the sunset. It was the casinos then. Now the new breed developer wants to put up a high-rise condo or a mixed-use project and only the ones with solid track records will manage to pull it off, the Trumps and Turnberry's Soffers, for instance. Could be this developer, too.