I've been following the fate of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas casino resort for a while now. It looks like the stalled project may have a new savior in the form of billionaire investor Carl Icahn. Icahn's Icahn Nevada Gaming LLC will be the opening or 'stalking horse' bidder in an auction of the resort after Penn National Gaming Inc. dropped out. Bloomberg News reports on the bidding war in court which led to Icahn offering $105 million, plus $51.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing besting Penn's offer of a total of $145 million. This means that the Icahn bid will be the one to beat.

The planned complex on the Las Vegas Strip is about 70 percent complete. It filed for bankruptcy in June and may cost around $1.5 billion to finish. Fontainebleau's sellers have asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol in Miami to auction the casino on January 21. Penn National Gaming had planned to finish Fontainebleau with an unidentified partner and to use the company's database of casino customers to help fill the casino with consumers. Icahn has a history of buying bankrupt casinos (including the Stratosphere in Las Vegas) and selling them for big profits. His entry into the fray may increase interest in the January auction and help ensure that someone eventually buys the casino and finishes the project.

Tiffany & Company showed off their designs this week for their latest store in Las Vegas, a new approximately 10,000-square-foot store at the CityCenter development on the Las Vegas Strip. The two-level store will be located in Crystals, CityCenter's 500,000-square-foot retail and entertainment district which was designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind and Rockwell Group. The store is set to open in December and will have an 85-foot-high glass facade which is shaped like a diamond. The overall effect is luxe with a bit of Vegas flash, the entrance will be gleaming black granite around Art Deco-inspired stainless steel doors and inside etched mirror walls, iridescent fabrics and glittering chandeliers add sparkle. The second floor will be reached via a spiral steel-and-glass staircase that is lit from underneath. There is a separate engagement ring salon and a private sales salon with can be reached via a glass bridge. This will be the third Tiffany store in Las Vegas there are two other shops on the Strip, one at the Shops at Via Bellagio and one at The Forum Shops at Caesars but this is the largest one yet. JCK Online has more pictures of the interior renderings.

Another Las Vegas Strip hotel is cutting back. We first heard about Caesar's Palace's billion-dollar expansion back in 2007. The plans included an overhaul of the Forum tower, new meeting and convention space, three pool villa suites overlooking three swimming pools and the 660-room Octavius Tower, named in honor of Julius Caesar's heir, the emperor Augustus (the resort already has an Augustus Tower, Octavian was the name he had before he ascended to power). Harrah's Entertainment has decided to delay the opening of the Octavius Tower simply because the demand for rooms isn't there.The villas, convention space and expanded pool area will open as planned. The company will open the tower once demand picks up again. The news follows the report that CityCenter, MGM Mrage's monster project is now down one 400-room hotel. For the past few years the answer to making more money as a resort operator in Las Vegas was to have more rooms but with travel and convention spending down a new plan is needed.

More economic trouble has come to the Las Vegas Strip. Las Vegas Sands, the casino empire run by billionaire Sheldon Adelson which includes The Venetian and The Palazzo, is facing a tough decision. The company must either immediately raise new capital, cut development or perhaps both in order to satisfy loan agreements. Stock shares fell by a dramatic one third on the news that the company may break its loan agreements.

The stock's prices have plummeted over the past year dropping Adelson's personal wealth dramatically. Once his shares were worth around $30 billion but with the latest drop his stocks are worth less than $2 billion. It is estimated that the long-term debt at the Sands is $8.8 billion. The Sands currently has projects in Las Vegas, Pennsylvania, Macau and Singapore. Casino revenues that might have continued to fuel these projects in better times are also dropping quickly. Even the convention business, the bread and butter of Las Vegas has also dropped off as companies cut off all unnecessary expenses.

It's a tough break for Adelson, who worked as a financial adviser and real estate investor and created the technology trade show Comdex before getting into the hotel business in 1989 when the bought the Sands. The 4,027-room Venetian and the 3,066-suite Palazzo are two of the most popular places to stay on the Strip. As the AP reports Adelson controls 70 percent of Las Vegas Sands personally and through family trusts and so his fate is inextricably linked with the fate of the Las Vegas Sands but at this point it is not known if he will use his personal wealth to bail out the company.

UPDATE: The Las Vegas Sands has suspended their building projects on the Cotai Strip in Macau, laying off a potential 11,000 workers.