LAS VEGAS - During the boom years, developers, hoping to cash in on Las Vegas, made big bets on the north end of Las Vegas Boulevard.

"There was a lot of construction, but nothing really happening on this end," said Houston tourist Lorenza Shaw. The promise of a north Strip renaissance never came to a fruition. "It's a disappointment, it really is, but what are you going to do," asked New Jersey tourist Natashia Hicks.

Boyd Gaming's multi-billion dollar Echelon project sits idle on the land of the old Stardust hotel. The development is on hold until market conditions improve.

Up the boulevard, the Fontainebleau stands empty and unfinished. Construction halted last year when lenders cut off $800 million in financing for the project.

Elad IDB intended to build a $5 billion replica of New York's Plaza hotel on the site of the old Frontier. But, the land stands empty.

LAS VEGAS -- Steve Wynn, president and CEO of Wynn Resorts, says the company is laying off 220 hourly wage employees and 41 salaried employees from both the Wynn and Encore resorts. Wynn says the job cuts will happen in every department at both Wynn and Encore. The cuts represent three percent of the company's workforce. Officials with the company met with staff on Tuesday to inform employees who will be losing their jobs.

Billy Manning was one of those workers. He worked as a craps dealer at the Wynn since it opened five years ago. "They didn't explain anything," Manning said. "They didn't tell us nothing. They just told us that they eliminated our positions… I don't need a job. My family needs a job. That's the problem. I mean, I can always do whatever, but I have a family. I have to support people, and he just took that away from me."

LAS VEGAS -- Local economists and business leaders debated Tuesday whether the recession has hit bottom yet.

A new report released at the UNLV Economic Outlook Conference showed some surprises, mainly corporate profits spiking to pre-recession levels and that the health services sector is booming but it's not translating into job growth.

UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research met with Nevada business leaders and their forecast for jobs can still be summed up as "grim" for southern Nevada.

Stimulus money was a topic of conversation at the conference. Nevada only got a small percentage of stimulus money compared to other states, but experts say it helped.

In the past year, the number of construction workers at Desert Wind Homes went from 30 employees to seven. They say federal home buyer tax credits helped keep their business from going under.