MGM seeks to demolish unfinished Las Vegas tower 
City's high-rise condo market plagued by 73% vacancy rate
By Andrea V. Brambila, Thursday, August 25, 2011.The days of the Harmon Hotel tower in Las Vegas may be numbered -- even before the hotel welcomes a single guest.
Begun during the Las Vegas high-rise condo boom, the hotel tower -- first proposed as a 49-story mixed-use condo and hotel project -- is an empty, if flashy, shell that its owner, MGM Resorts International, seeks to demolish.
The building's downfall has been blamed on massive construction defects and the market downturn. MGM and the building's general contractor, Perini Building Co., are embroiled in litigation over the building's problems -- and the outcome may ultimately decide its fate.
Originally conceived as a 400-room nongaming tower with more than 200 residential condo units, the Harmon was part of the larger CityCenter development on the Las Vegas Strip.
When MGM put the planned condo units on the market in early 2008, buyers -- mostly owner-occupants -- put down 20 percent deposits on nearly half of the units within a two-month period, said Robert Hamrick, who served from January 2006 to March 2011 as senior vice president and broker at CityCenter Realty Corp. He is currently chairman and CEO of Coldwell Banker Premier Realty in Las Vegas.
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