According to The New York Times Sillerman is to turn Graceland into Disneyland.
First off he is set to demolish the Heartbreak Hotel (across from Graceland) and in its place put two 400-room hotels, convention space, an entertainment complex, restaurants, shops, an outdoor amphitheatre and a spa.
He plans to overhaul Graceland from a run-down tourist attraction into a sparkling destination resort.
He is also making changes in Las Vegas with an interactive museum exhibit and Elvis theme show that he hopes will attract millions of visitors a year.
He also envisions a 15,000-square foot exhibit that will travel around the world.
He visited Graceland last month pointing out things he wants to do once the renovations begin. He wants to expand the museum space, which is cramped.
He is irritated by small details, like the jumbled layout of the house tour, which can lead visitors to a dead end.
He wants to make Graceland a "multiday experience," not the two-hour walk-through it is now. He wants people to "stay as long as possible" and of course to spend as much as they can.
He believes that EPE has not used Elvis to his full potential and now that he controls 85 per cent of the company he now has power over Elvis`s name and likeness as well as his house, its grounds and 65 adjoining acres.
The small gift shop may be expanded into a retail complex full of Elvis memorabilia. Sillerman`s entertainment company says it has warehouses groaning with 600,000 pieces of Elvisana, including a barber chair from Graceland, a jukebox from his home in Palm Springs and movie contracts he signed.
Because Sillerman`s company also owns the American Idol franchise, it has a ready supply of musicians who could perform at the planned Amphitheatre.
Mr.Sillerman has also been courting Graceland`s guardians, including Priscilla.
When her daughter, Lisa Marie, struck the deal with CKX, Mrs. Presley gave up any commercial rights to Graceland and the Presley name and received $6.5 million in return.
"It`s very emotional for my daughter and for myself," Mrs. Presley said in a phone interview. "It`s our baby. It`s an emotional ride. We`ve grown with it, and it`s a very personal experience for us."
While in Memphis two weeks ago, Sillerman met with local officials, including the city`s mayor and the mayor of Shelby County to sell them on the plan which has been drawn up by an Orlando firm that also designed the revamped observation deck at the top of Rockefeller Centre.
He was warmly received.
One local business leader said "The effect it`s going to have on everybody`s business in Memphis is tremendous."
If there has been any opponents to the plan, they have been quiet.
Crossing the buzzing traffic on Elvis Presley Boulevard is a dangerous proposition and Sillerman wants to tear down the existing visitors centre and build a new one next to the house, so that visitors don`t have to cross the road.
Weddings would also mean bigger business and so a tiny wedding chapel in the woods would be expanded to a larger "wedding pavilion" to accomodate at least 300 weddings a year.
In Nevada CKX plans to announce this month that it will open an interactive exhibit and Elvis-theme cabaret show on one of two pieces of property on the Las Vegas strip. Sillerman declined to say whether a hotel or casino would be added.
Mrs. Presley suggested that those could follow: "We have talked about having a presence in Las Vegas, hotel-wise, for many, many years," she said.
Some people in Las Vegas may be less than thrilled as EPE has allowed impersonators to use Elvis`s name and likeness free but CKX may not follow suit.
A spokesman for the Las Vegas Tourist Bureau, said that there were at least 50 full-time Elvis impersonators - not counting weekend or part-time Elvises - who worked primarily in wedding chapels and charged about $150 for a 20-minute ceremony.
Sillerman said that the fate of the impersonators was undecided. "If we were going to do a show that was based on Elvis impersonators, then obviously it wouldn`t make sense to have unauthorized Elvis impersonators," he said.
At least one privately owned Elvis business is not surviving.
CKX is acquiring and shutting down Elvis-A-Rama, a popular museum and gift shop off the strip.
Sillerman also sees lots of potential outside the United States.
Each year 600,000 visitors pay from $22 to $55 for a tour of Graceland, and about 30 percent of them are foreigners. That has him thinking of taking the Elvis franchise abroad in the next couple of years, perhaps with an interactive exhibit that would move from city to city every few months.
Clearly, Sillerman has faith in Elvis`s staying power.
