LAS VEGAS — Boyd Gaming Corp. yesterday revealed further details of its planned $4.8 billion Echelon casino complex, pitching it as a series of upscale hotels that will cater to customers tired of oversized megaresorts.

The company said its research showed customers "often grouse about the waiting and the walking that has become synonymous with these large facilities," said Bob Boughner, Boyd's president of Echelon.

"We've crafted Echelon in a manner that we believe will capture their excitement yet tap into the sense of desire for hotel living spaces that are more intimate," he said.

Each of five hotels — from the large, curving, 2,500-room Hotel Echelon to the thin, 350-room Shangri-La — on the northern end of the Strip will have its own separate porte-cochere area. The complex includes the 640-room Suites at Echelon, and two hotels developed as a joint venture with Morgans Hotel Group Co., the 860-room Mondrian and 550-room Delano. Each will have its own pool area and most will have their own spas.

The massive development, which formally began construction yesterday and is to open in late 2010, sits on 87 acres once occupied by the Stardust casino-hotel. Boyd demolished that hotel, which opened in 1958, in a hail of fireworks in March.

Bill Boyd, the chairman and chief executive, said the company hopes to capture part of the market for convention visitors, who have increased at twice the rate of leisure visitors since 1990. He also said the high-end market is being underserved in Las Vegas.

"Las Vegas, as far as upscale properties are concerned, is way behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, where probably 30 percent of the total room base is upscale," he said. "In Las Vegas it's only 16 percent. We think that there's a great amount of growth potential in the market."

Some 40,000 Las Vegas hotel rooms are expected to be added in the next five years, including those at Echelon; at Las Vegas Sands Corp.'s $2.6 billion Palazzo, opening this year; at Wynn Resorts Ltd.'s $2.1 billion Encore, opening in 2009; and at MGM Mirage Inc.'s $7.4 billion CityCenter, also set for 2009.

Other upscale casino properties set to debut around the same time are the $2.8 billion Fontainebleau, in 2009, and the Plaza, an up-to-$8 billion complex targeted to open in 2011.

As far as construction goes, the Palazzo, Encore and CityCenter are well above ground and the Fontainebleau barely started, said Dan Tishman of construction manager Tishman Construction Corp. The New Frontier casino-hotel has not yet been imploded to make way for the Plaza complex.

"It's the next new big project in town that's at the starting line by itself," Tishman said.

About 22 acres of the Echelon site will be left mostly undeveloped, serving as surface parking and landscaping while the company assesses how to best use the land, Boughner said.

The property will have convention and meeting spaces; a retail promenade; two live entertainment venues of 4,000 seats and 1,500 seats; 30 dining and nightlife venues; and a casino.

Entertainment for the property will likely include "multiple headliners" with elaborate productions, said John Meglen, president of the Concerts West talent-booking company. "We're three years away but we've had a lot of people that we've spoken with already," he said. "It will be the greatest of the greatest names in entertainment."

Boyd shares fell 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $52.14 yesterday.