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MGM Resorts says it will demolish Harmon Tower
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K.m. Cannon/Review-Journal
MGM Resorts International is seeking approval from Clark County to demolish the Harmon Tower, part of CityCenter, on the Las Vegas Strip. The unfinished 27-story building has structural problems. » Buy this photo
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Harmon Tower demolition
Contains CityCenter letter to Clark County Development Services and LVI Environmental Services of Nevada, Inc., Plan of Action
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People walk by the Harmon Tower on Monday. MGM Resorts International told Clark County officials that the structurally troubled Harmon Tower cannot be fixed and submitted a plan Monday to demolish the building . Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review Journal » Buy this photo
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Aug. 17, 2011 | 3:14 p.m.
MGM Resorts International says there's only one way out for the flawed 27-story Harmon Tower: explosives.
On Monday, the casino operator told Clark County officials that the structurally troubled Harmon Tower cannot be fixed and submitted a plan to implode the unfinished luxury hotel and condominium tower, which was to anchor the north end of the $8.5 billion CityCenter development.
MGM Resorts was responding to a directive from the Clark County Building Department, which sought a solution to public safety concerns surrounding the Harmon. Last month, a structural engineering firm said the building could collapse in a major earthquake.
MGM Resorts said it consulted "experts" who recommended demolishing the Strip building as the "fastest and safest" solution. The tower, across from The Cosmopolitan and next to CityCenter's Crystals retail mall, would be imploded.
In a letter to Clark County Building Official Ron Lynn, CityCenter Senior Vice President William Ham said the developers "decided that to abate the potential for structural collapse in case of a code level earthquake, CityCenter will demolish the Harmon Building."
Perini Building Co., CityCenter's general contractor, maintains it can fix the Harmon.
"Perini agrees that the fastest way to end the dispute over responsibility to repair MGM's design errors would be to blow up the building and destroy the evidence," the company said in an email. "However, that would be far from the end of the dispute. MGM is seeking to implode the building to hide the fact that the Harmon is not a threat to public safety and to avoid having the repairs made that Perini and its third-party structural engineers have offered to do."
Alteration, destruction prohibited
Construction defect issues surrounding the Harmon have the building's immediate future held up in a Clark County District Court lawsuit between Perini and MGM Resorts, which is the operator and 50 percent owner of CityCenter.
MGM Resorts said if the county approves demolition, CityCenter will seek District Court approval. The court has prohibited alteration or destruction of the building until resolution of the lawsuit between CityCenter and Perini, now on hold pending a Nevada Supreme Court ruling on technicalities.
According to a plan of action submitted by LVI Environmental Services of Nevada, which was hired by CityCenter to demolish the Harmon, it would take six months to prepare and implode the tower structure and its podium, and four months for debris removal.
LVI said nearby businesses and pedestrian bridges on the Strip and Harmon Avenue would be protected by screens and scaffolding. The same team has imploded several shuttered Strip resorts, including the Sands, Stardust, Desert Inn, Aladdin and El Rancho.
MGM assured implosion would be safe
In a statement, MGM Resorts Vice President of Public Affairs Gordon Absher said the company was assured that a properly executed implosion "will not pose health or safety problems for residents, visitors and adjacent businesses."
Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin said the Building Department officials had received the communications from MGM Resorts, but declined comment on the Harmon matter Monday.
Because the building is owned by CityCenter, the Clark County Commission would not have to approve the implosion. The Building Department would have to sign off on the plan and permits would be needed from several Clark County and state agencies, including the Clark County Fire Department, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Nevada Highway Patrol and Clark County Air Quality Control Board.
Perini on Monday reiterated a month-old statement that it is "willing and able" to complete the Harmon. The company said it has met with Clark County commissioners to discuss the tower, but has not met with building officials.
In July, Southern California-based structural engineering firm Weidlinger Associates said that Harmon could collapse in a major earthquake and that the building had "pervasive and varied" construction defects.
The firm said it would take 12 to 14 months to determine whether the Harmon could be repaired.
MGM hired Weidlinger to evaluate the Harmon after a county consultant, William P. Moore Structural Engineers, concluded the building "suffered from certain vulnerabilities."
MGM Resorts said Monday its experts say it would take two to three years to complete repairs, if repairs are even possible.
"CityCenter consulted with experts about the fastest and safest way to resolve public safety concerns created by the structural defect issues at the Harmon'' Absher said. "Based on their expert advice, CityCenter is recommending that the structure be demolished by implosion."
Construction issues first surfaced in 2008, when building inspectors found structural work on the planned 47-story building did not match plans submitted to the county. The construction issues involved improperly placed steel reinforcing bar, commonly known as rebar.
In January 2009, MGM Resorts scrapped 200 condos planned for upper floors and capped the tower at 27 stories. CityCenter opened in December 2009. The Harmon remains a blue-glass facade on an essentially empty shell.
Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
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I wonder why they are using non Union contractors to demolish it. I hope they don't pull a Hacienda where only half of the building comes down!
CityCenter has been a disaster from Day One. How come no heads have rolled? The thousands of people who work there deserve better leadership than MGM has been providing.
Here's a clue...MGM can probably get more money from insurance claims than selling condos for rock bottom prices. Vegas has overbuilt especially in the condo market. You can thank our county comm. for all the homes and condos empty in Las vegas. Tomorrow cty comm. will probably approve another 7500 home development on Blue Diamond hill. After that metropolis town is built our homes will devalue even further. Gotta love our elected officials for doing such a stand up job ruining the LV economy.
Problem is a majority of non English speaking union workers and corrupt inspectors. These workers just put in their time not understanding or not caring to report apparent problems. Those that would take pride in their work, are experienced in the industry and report something that is amiss are over ridden or let go. It all comes back to "follow the money".
I know that when I built my house, I failed an inspection because my sidewalk plans were not on the same sheet as my landscape plans. The inspectors bugged me to the point of insanity. While I am skeptical of a big conspiracy because no one can keep a secret, I think some shady dealings took place here, building officials, architects, and other government officials getting cash. The building department is not much different than the mob. If you open a bakery in NY, your delivery driver gets beat up and a few days later a few Italian gentlemen in double breasted suits come in and express their condolences and offer their "protection." They create a problem and force you to buy your way out. You have to ask the government for permission to build, show your plans to a dozen overpaid and overweight bureaucrats, then they are supposed to inspect every element to make sure it's safe; create a problem (you need our permission to build) and force you to buy your way out. Obviously, governments cannot be relied on to oversee construction. None of the 7 wonders of the world involved a building inspector. This nonsense makes dealing with La Cosa Nostra look a lot better.
OK fellas, here it is yet again...... Pacific Coast Steel delivers faulty rebar to the site, rebar that zigs instead of zags. Perini sets it up and does the pours while Converse Consulting stands by and gives two thumbs up. Rebar is protruding after the concrete cures, and is cut away. Nines floors in a row this happens. Oops. Weak connections, especially between floors and walls leaves even the county saying it is unsafe. Now people can say that mgm just wants to get out of paying for it. Maybe true, but it is an absurd liability to let people in a building that could come down so easily. Imagine about a thousand people being SMOOSHED. All the people that are now blaming mgm for supposedly "weaseling out" would instead be calling out the heartless corporation that put profit ahead of public safety. Hypocrites all.
What a great job by the unions!!!!!!!
this building was suppose to be 40 something stories, thats how f##ked these inspectors union builders, and contractors are out here...
harmon tower was union built!!!!!!!! inspectors, and unions are the same out here.....
This is similar to what obuma the destroyer is doing to our country.
First he builds it up with hope and change,and then he destroys it in a single blast.........and all along the process,nobody checked or cared to check if what they were doing was correct!
It's time to replace the builder with Perry!