Companies express concern that planned implosion would prejudice trial over alleged defects.
Two subcontractors have joined the general contractor in fighting plans by MGM Resorts International to implode the unused Harmon Tower at CityCenter on the Las Vegas Strip.
The CityCenter casino-resort complex, half owned and managed by MGM Resorts International, says the 26-storey hotel structure is unsafe because of construction defects and needs to come down. It is seeking approval to implode the tower from Clark County and in a Clark County District Court lawsuit.
The lawsuit is over the defects and money CityCenter has refused to pay Perini and certain subcontractors for what it calls flawed work on the $279 million building.
The structure, where work was halted in early 2010, had been planned for 47 floors but was capped at 26 when the defects were discovered.
The general contractor, Perini Building Co., insists the structure is safe and the defects can be repaired. It’s been leading the charge against the implosion plan, charging MGM Resorts wants to get rid of the building not because of defects but because of its own design errors and because the Harmon is unneeded with the current glut of hotel rooms in the city.
And now two subcontractors have joined Perini in fighting the demolition plan. Their attorneys filed briefs last week with District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez, who plans a hearing next month on the demolition proposal. A team of five attorneys representing Pacific Coast Steel filed one of the briefs. And the company has plenty at stake in the litigation.
On the one hand, it’s accused of failing to properly construct “link beams” at the Harmon, allegedly resulting in a “substantial and dangerous reduction in the vertical load-bearing capabilities” of the building.
On the other hand, it has filed liens against the Harmon for $8.4 million and is complaining implosion of the building would destroy its collateral for those liens.
Pacific Coast Steel attorneys complained in their brief that destruction of the Harmon would give CityCenter an “insurmountable advantage” against Perini, Pacific Coast Steel and other subcontractors in an upcoming trial on the alleged defects.
“The physical absence of the Harmon caused by its demolition is enough to permanently prejudice Perini, Pacific Coast Steel and the other subcontractors and guarantee a verdict in CityCenter’s favor nearly a year and a half before the first juror is sworn in by the court,” their filing said.
“Demolition will create an unrebuttable presumption in favor of CityCenter on the two ultimate issues in the case — whether the Harmon was defectively constructed and whether the building can be repaired rather than demolished,” the Pacific Coast Steel filing said. “The jury’s decision on both of these issues will be effectively taken out of their hands if the building is allowed to be torn down.”
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