Along with the long list of other resort-casino concepts that have failed to get off the drawing board -- a roll-call that includes properties themed on the Caribbean, San Francisco, London, the Titanic, Harley Davidson, Xanadu, the Moon, World Wrestling Federation, Elvis, Playboy, the World Trade Center (just as well that one didn't get built), and Shenandoah (an association that seems to have the kiss of death), to name just some of them -- there have indeed been a couple of prior plans for Asian-themed resorts that never came to fruition, although none that we're aware of at the location you reference.
The simply named Asia Resort and Casino was a design concept from prolific local architectural firm Steelman Partners, a group responsible for many resort-casinos around the world, including several here in Las Vegas. Paul Steelman is actually the architect behind the new Resorts World Las Vegas (click the link for some renditions of this project, the Asian-themed reincarnation of Echelon, and an interview on KNPR with the man about his design vision).
The original Asian-themed idea from Steelman was proposed for the resort that Sheldon Adelson instead opted to develop as Palazzo, and from the one small and not-very-clear rendering we've been able to find of the Asian version, courtesy of VegasTodayandTomorrow.com, we think he made the right decision.
In 1993, ITT Sheraton purchased the Desert Inn and had plans to transform the large parking lot into a Balinese-themed resort called Desert Kingdom, to compliment the DI. But the project was never developed and the land was subsequently purchased by Steve Wynn, who razed the Desert Inn in order to build Wynn Las Vegas.
For more information and renderings of some of the other resorts mentioned above, plus original plans for resorts that did get built, but not as first conceived, check out the Old Dreams and Altered Dreams pages at VegasTodayandTomorrow.com, where you can also see a list of more recent "Dreams" presumed dead-in-the-water.
