Unopened Vegas hotel has become the “poster child for non-confirming work”.
MGM Resorts officials, very quietly and with no public fanfare, want to demolish the unopened 27-storey Harmon Hotel, one of the components of its $8.5 billion CityCenter development.
But litigation and pinpointing blame for the troubled building will prevent anything from happening to the unfinished tower until late 2012.
In its recent third-quarter earnings statement, MGM Resorts said it took a $279 million noncash impairment charge for the Harmon and concluded “it is unlikely the Harmon will be completed using the building as it now stands.”
In an interview this week, CityCenter Chief Executive Officer Bobby Baldwin said the company has hired two sets of structural engineers to determine the building’s condition and what steps might be taken. MGM Resorts will bring in a third group of experts to analyze the building.
A report on the findings will be filed with the Clark County District Court, as part of CityCenter’s lawsuit against Perini Building Co., the project’s general contractor.
Clark County Building Department officials will not allow any construction to be done to the Harmon, which was originally designed as a 47-story hotel and condominium tower. In 2008, inspectors found structural work on the Harmon did not match building plans submitted to the county. The construction issues involved improperly placed steel reinforcing bar. In January 2009, MGM Resorts scrapped the planned 200 condominium units for the upper floors and stopped the tower at 27 stories.
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