here come the north strip mega-resorts.

More buying, selling and constructing on the Strip. Huh...imagine that. It looks like this is on the north end. From the Las Vegas Business Press:

Alamo descendant strikes deal with Archon Corp
By DAVID MCKEE

After years of uncertainty, the fate of the former Wet 'n Wild site moved closer to resolution today. Archon Corp., owner of the site -- immediately south of the Sahara Hotel & Casino -- announced that it had inked an option agreement to sell 27 acres of Strip real estate to Christopher Milam. A developer from Austin, Tex., Milam will pay $450 million (or $16.98 million an acre) for the derelict, graffiti-festooned remnants of the Wet 'n Wild amusment park, which closed in September 2004.

The price represents a new high-water mark for North Strip real estate. Nearby acreage cobbled together by Concord Wilshire for a Maxim Magazine-branded casino averaged $9.6 million an acre and the former site of the Westward Ho was recently revalued at $12 million per acre.

Further north, Sahara CEO Al Hummel and CB Richard Ellis are rumored to be seeking as much as $20 million per acre for their 55-acre parcel. No takers have yet materialized, although Pinnacle Entertainment CEO Dan Lee made a high-visibility inspection tour of the property last spring.

"It's a phenomenal piece of real estate," Milam told the Business Press, pointing to the potential synergies available from nearby Turnberry Place, Sky Las Vegas, Hilton's adjacent timeshare towers and several forthcoming developments, including Boyd Gaming's Echelon Place. "This site is right in the middle of it and there's nothing to tear down."

Acquiring Wet 'n Wild would give Milam 950 feet of Strip frontage and 850 feet on Paradise Road, and 26.5 acres in between. He plans a $3.75 billion to $4 billion megaresort and said he's lined up three prestigious design firms: the Paul Steelman Group, for the casino; RTKL, to design the retail component; and the Chicago branch of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill for the hotel tower. Read more.