Wednesday, Sept. 24, 1997 | 11:28 a.m.
Although the Aladdin and every other aging Las Vegas hotel may one day be reduced to rubble in the desert, its reported demise is far from a done deal, officials said today.
"There are no immediate plans to take it down," a spokesman for the Aladdin said in the wake of a published report that the 31-year-old Strip resort, beset by financial woes over the years, may be imploded to make room for a megaresort.
"It may eventually be demolished, but that is just one of a lot of options of a development plan (considered by Jack Sommer, who heads the trust that owns the 17-story hotel)," said the spokesman, who asked not to be identified. "Other plans include renovating it or adding to the existing property."
The Clark County Building Department said today that while there have been talks with the Aladdin's operators about its plans, nothing has been submitted seeking to demolish it.
An announcement by Sommer and the owners of the property, the Sigman Sommer Family Trust of New York, on the Aladdin's future could come as early as this week.
Regardless of which path is taken, Sommer reportedly hopes to have the new resort ready for opening by New Year's Eve 2000.
What will be done with the hotel hinges on Sommer's ability to raise financing of $600 million to $800 million for a renovation of the resort, whose past owners include a Japanese billionaire and entertainer Wayne Newton.
The 7,000-seat Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts is likely to be spared during the two-year construction schedule, officials said.
Aladdin executives announced plans in May 1996 to spend $600 million to renovate and expand the 1,100-room hotel to 2,600 rooms with a 400-room sister hotel.
Other plans call for a 250-unit time-share condominium tower, a 500,000-square-foot shopping mall and several parking structures.
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