Harrah’s implodes Bourbon St. hotel to pave way for Strip project
AP Wire - Two series of explosions crackled through the early morning air Tuesday when Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. imploded the Bourbon Street casino as part of a plan by the world’s top casino company to redesign and perhaps consolidate several nearby Strip properties.
The 166-room, eight-story hotel tower and parking garage was built in 1980 and has been closed since October, seven months after Harrah’s bought it.
Harrah’s chief executive Gary Loveman said the eight-acre site will be part of a megaproject to be unveiled early this summer that will link its properties on some 300 acres around the Las Vegas Strip.
Last week, rival MGM Mirage Inc., the No. 2 casino operator, upped the price tag on its Project CityCenter megaresort along the Las Vegas Strip by $2 billion to $7 billion. The mixed-use development of hotels, condos, retail, dining and entertainment facilities is set to be finished in late 2009.
MGM’s project featuring a 4,000-room hotel-casino will include a $150 million to $200 million monorail, which Loveman said Harrah’s also was considering.
Harrah’s became the world’s largest casino company last June when it bought rival Caesars Entertainment Inc. for $9 billion. In November, it announced it would build a luxury resort under the Caesars brand in Spain and that it has plans for similar resorts in Slovenia and the Bahamas. Harrah’s also is applying to build in Singapore.