LAS VEGAS — An elevator shaft withstood a more than 2-ton explosive punch meant to implode a Las Vegas hotel, and crews now are planning a little more work to finish the job. Most of the 12-story Clarion casino-hotel crumbled in a pre-dawn Tuesday demolition designed to clear the off-Strip site for new construction.
But despite the detonation of 4,400 pounds of explosives, the elevator core just dropped about four stories and remained leaning a bit to one side. Property owner and developer Lorenzo Doumani says the shaft still has a ways to go. The 200-room casino-hotel opened in 1970 as the Royal Inn. It was known over the years as the Debbie Reynolds — for its one-time owner — as well as the Greek Isles and the Paddle Wheel.