LAS VEGAS -- Wynn Resorts Ltd. has extended the completion date for its $1.4 billion Encore hotel-casino to Dec. 31, 2008, to allow time to refine the scope of the project.

Wynn Resorts had originally planned to finish the megaresort nine months earlier, according to documents filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company is building Encore next to its $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas that opened April 28 and has already generated strong revenues in its first 34 days of operation.

Encore will be freestanding, but fully integrated with Wynn Las Vegas, the filing said.

The company said it wants to enlarge the Encore project due to demand for Wynn Las Vegas, the continued strength of the Las Vegas market and the desire to maximize the potential of its real estate assets.

The company also said it's extending Encore's budget deadline from June 30, 2005, to Dec. 31, 2005.

In an investor's note Friday, Deutsche Bank gambling analyst Marc Falcone wrote the cost of Encore is likely to rise.

Falcone wrote the delay will allow the "company more time to flush out a design for Encore that will best fit with Wynn Las Vegas, and ultimately, the master planned development of the adjoining golf course."

Wynn Resorts also is erecting a $700 million casino in Macau scheduled to open later next year and is bidding on one in Singapore.

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