Casino company MGM Resorts International has asked for permission to demolish the defective Harmon hotel tower in Las Vegas. Photo: MCTNow the company in charge of the Harmon may scrap it altogether. MGM Resorts International asked county officials Monday to allow it to implode the tower.
Though visitors, room rates and gambling revenue are up from last year, slow national economic growth could threaten the Strip's recovery.
Advertisement: Story continues below
Building on the Harmon was stopped after inspectors found problems with steel reinforcing bars in 2008. Other parts of the CityCenter complex opened in 2009.
MGM Resorts and general contractor Tutor Perini Corp. are engaged in a nasty legal fight over the gleaming blue tower. MGM Resorts claims its construction was sloppy. Perini says the project was poorly designed. Because the stunted building is a key piece of evidence, neither side can touch it until various legal matters are resolved.
Last month, an engineer hired by MGM said in a report that the building could fall in a strong earthquake. Tutor Perini dismissed the report as a litigation ploy and said they were "100 per cent confident" that the building was safe.
Clark County officials, who oversee the Strip, had told MGM Resorts to submit a plan by Monday to either fix or destroy the tower. The casino operator said it could take up to 18 months to figure out how to shore up the Harmon "if repair is even a possibility" and asked to implode it, though that would require the court's approval.
Perini officials retorted that MGM Resorts wanted to "avoid adding the Harmon as additional glut to its other vacant properties in CityCenter under the guise of 'public safety.'"
LA Times
No comments:
Post a Comment