MGM Mirage to Cancel CityCenter Condo Project

The Harmon Hotel & Spa – originally planned as a 49-story building with some 200 condominiums atop 400 hotel rooms, will no longer offer condominiums and instead will open in late 2010 as a 400-room hotel, MGM Mirage said today.

The Harmon, one of six towers at MGM Mirage's CityCenter resort complex under construction on the Strip, had been slated to open in November.

As first reported in the Las Vegas Sun early this morning, MGM Mirage was considering topping off The Harmon where the hotel ends, which would be a little more than half of its planned height, after months of extensive structural repair work that slowed progress on the tower.

MGM Mirage executives had recommended the change as of Monday afternoon but other parties involved in CityCenter, including the company's lenders and joint venture partner Dubai World, had not yet signed off on the decision.

By cancelling the condominiums, the partners will be able to avoid the need "for substantial redesign" of The Harmon "resulting from contractor errors," CityCenter Chief Executive Robert Baldwin said in a statement today.

The scaled-back building, as well as other cost-saving measures initiated by MGM Mirage amid this recession, will result in savings of about $600 million at CityCenter. Postponing The Harmon by a year will defer about $200 million in construction costs to fit out the building's interior, Baldwin said.

For the complete story, please see Liz Benston, MGM Mirage cancels CityCenter condo project, Las Vegas Sun, January 7, 2009.