The New York Observer reported that Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner visited Las Vegas over the weekend to work on development plans for a rock ’n’ roll-themed resort using the magazine’s licensed name.

A source in Las Vegas said Wenner is looking at the 17-acre site of the Alexis Park, a nongaming hotel that was purchased by Los Angeles investor Richard Alter and his partners for us$ 62 million in 2004.

The source said Alter has had the property in escrow more than once, but has run up against differences with his Asian business partners on how to proceed with development. Alter said on a telephone conversation on Wednesday that he is not selling the property to Rolling Stone magazine.

When he bought Alexis Park, Alter said he was going to invest us$ 400 million renovating the property with a 28-story hotel tower, 60,000-square-foot casino, restaurants and health spa. Room inventory would be expanded from 500 to 1,500. Alter’s company, L.A. Pacific Center, also bought a 4.5-acre apartment complex next to the hotel for us$ 8.1 million, Clark County Assessor’s records show.

Harmon Avenue is being transformed into a corridor of hip, new development with an estimated us$ 20 billion in planned projects, including the Hard Rock expansion, Las Ramblas by George Clooney, Starwood’s W Las Vegas, MGM Mirage’s Project CityCenter and Bruce Eichner’s Cosmopolitan.

A spokesman for the Hard Rock said owner Peter Morton has been a longtime friend of Jann Wenner. And, while nothing has been confirmed, should the Rolling Stone hotel go through, the spokesman said, Morton would welcome the competition and thinks it would be good for the Las Vegas market.