Former Harmon Tower Site at CityCenter Sold for $80 Million

By Scott Roeben, on April 26 2021
2 min read 5 comments
Las Vegas

MGM Resorts has finally unloaded the site of a classic Las Vegas boondoggle for an eye-popping $80 million.

The two-acre plot sits at the corner of Las Vegas Blvd. and Harmon Avenue, a Bvlgari gemstone’s throw from Cosmopolitan.

Strip retail center
Your sense of underwhelm is palpable.

The land was purchased by Brett Torino of Torino Development and Paul and Dayssi Kanavos of Flag Luxury.

The plan is to build a retail complex on the site, which is incredibly boring, but the history of the space is so fascinating, we felt obligated to pass the news along.

Harmon tower demolition
A lone crane and the last remaining stub of Harmon Tower before it disappeared forever.

Harmon Tower was part of CityCenter, but the discovery of building defects meant it had to come down before it ever welcomed a single guest.

Construction stopped in 2008, and eventually Harmon Tower was dismantled piece by piece.

Harmon Tower was an expensive fiasco. It cost $275 million to construct and $173 million to deconstruct.

Here’s the definitive chronology of the trainwreck that was the Harmon Tower at CityCenter. Which MGM Resorts conveniently left out of their news release, by the way.

Looks like DVS is a possibly placeholder for a CVS. You can never have too many of those, we said sarcastically.

Some additional scoop you won’t see anywhere else: The rumor is the tenants at the adjoining Shops at Crystals are, to paraphrase our source, “losing their shit” about the sale. And not the good kind of “losing their shit.” Because competition.

Shopping: That thing you do when you run out of gambling money.

A source also shares a good deal of the new retail center’s revenue will come from a large digital display.

The massive digital billboard across the street at Harmon Corner prints money, so the new owners of this site are looking to get a piece of that advertising action.

Here’s another look at what’s in the works.

Fun fact: The plans are a proven cure for insomnia.

Strip retail center
We presume they’re building this because Crystals was just too packed with customers. Related: National Sarcasm Day is Dec. 10.

While more retail isn’t exactly the most thrilling news, something is better than a vacant plot of land, so we’ll take it.

At the very least, we may get a new restaurant on The Strip.

If it’s Italian, that’s worth at least $80 million.