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.