Demolition date shifts as implosion is ruled out.
The unfinished Harmon Hotel in Las Vegas, once envisioned as CityCenter’s front door, will be mundanely peeled away, floor-by-floor, rather than mark the end of the six-year hiatus in the Las Vegas tradition of imploding unwanted Strip hotel towers. LVI Environmental Services of Nevada Inc., which has overseen many of those demolitions, completed a plan in early November that calls for erasing all trace of the ill-fated Harmon by next Nov. 21.
However, the timetable has been thrown into question.
Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez on Friday put a hold on demolition at least until Dec. 6 and perhaps longer. At that hearing on that date, the judge will address how much more time insurance carrier FM Global needs to investigate the Harmon’s defects to determine how much of CityCenter’s $393.8 million claim it will pay.
On Thursday, the County Building Department had approved the demolition plan, anticipating that dismantling would start on Dec. 2. Other permits, such as dust abatement, still must be put in place.
Officials at MGM Resorts International, CityCenter’s operator and half owner, opted for implosion when they informed county officials in August 2011 that they wanted to raze the Harmon. That left many people wondering how a 26-story tower could safely and cleanly be brought down in such tight quarters, just a few feet from busy South Las Vegas Boulevard, Harmon Avenue and a pedestrian bridge, not to mention its attachment to the Crystals shopping center.
LVI officials, who would have handled the implosion, submitted a plan to the county that called for extra protection for Crystals and some nearby structures, but without detailing how all of the fallen debris would stay on the property.
The schedule allocated six months to prepare the Harmon for the big moment and four months for cleanup, including scrubbing the dust that would inevitably settle on other parts of CityCenter and the nearby Cosmopolitan and Planet Hollywood, as well as streets and other public places.
LVI engineers were not allowed to comment on how their thinking has evolved, but a Nov. 1 letter to MGM Resorts International from LVI president Joe Catania said the demolition plan was “developed in coordination with the information provided in several of the forensic study documents, opinion letters and analyses” that came out of the litigation between CityCenter and former general contractor Perini Building Co.
MGM officials aren’t saying much.
“The method of demolition was selected by (LVI),” MGM spokesman Gordon Absher said.” We cannot suppose any of the many factors that went into their decision.”
LVI Environmental Services submitted one of seven bids for the work. No price has been announced, although the cost of implosion had been estimated at $30 million.
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