Au revoir, Riviera: Here’s a spectator’s guide to Tuesday’s implosion

By J.D. Morris

Monday, June 13, 2016 | 2 a.m.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Las Vegas Strip will repeat an act it has staged many times before: an implosion at an old resort to make way for something new.

This time it’s the Riviera, and Tuesday’s implosion of the Monaco Tower is the first of two scheduled implosions for the former hotel-casino, which closed in May 2015 after a 60-year run. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority now owns the site and it plans to replace the Riviera buildings with more convention space.

Crews have already demolished some of the Riviera’s other structures, including two parking garages, and the shorter Monte Carlo hotel tower will be imploded later this year. Before bringing that tower down, workers need to remove asbestos in its exterior.

This week’s implosion has been well over a year in the making. The authority’s board of directors OK’d the purchase of the Riviera last February, agreeing to spend $182.5 million for the historic resort and up to $8.5 million more on related expenses. The Riviera closed less than three months later, and the authority has taken a lot of logistical steps since then, including approval of a $42 million demolition contract for Las Vegas-based WA Richardson Builders LLC.

Now, the path is clear for the first implosion. Here’s what you need to know before the big event:

When you can watch it

The authority originally said the Monaco tower would be imploded about 2 a.m. when it first announced the date of the event. But on Friday, the authority said the timing had been changed to 2:30 a.m.

Spokeswoman Heidi Hayes said “it was always kind of a fluid time” and that it may still change depending on the weather. In particular, she said high winds could affect it, but conditions appeared to be cooperating as of Friday afternoon.

Those who won’t be able to see Tuesday’s implosion will get another chance when the Monte Carlo tower is imploded later this summer. While an exact date for that has yet to be announced, it should happen in mid-August.

Where you can watch it

The authority has not been advertising the implosion as a spectator event, so implosion-watchers are on their own to find the right spot.

One option is a viewing party at the Barrymore at Royal Resort, located at 99 Convention Center Drive. The Barrymore has said it was staying open for extended hours from midnight until 3 a.m. to offer “the best vantage point to watch one of Las Vegas’ most iconic hotels fall 24 stories to the ground.” The space boasts a patio and lounge area with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Sundance Helicopters was offering a two-seat package up for bid on eBay for those eager to see the implosion from the sky. The helicopter company said winning guests would fly “at the safe vantage point of 3,500 feet.” Bidding started at $500 and the proceeds were set to benefit Make-A-Wish Southern Nevada.

Anyone trying to find another spot from which to view the implosion should keep in mind that there should be street closures in the area. Riviera Boulevard will be closed from about 1:30 a.m. until 5 a.m., while Convention Center Drive will be reduced to one lane for eastbound traffic only from about 1:30 a.m. until the dust from the implosion settles, according to county spokesman Dan Kulin. Las Vegas Boulevard will also be closed from about 2:15 a.m. until the dust settles, Kulin said in an email.

How it will work

The authority hasn’t gone into detail about the exact explosives that will be used and such, and every implosion is different. But generally speaking, charges are typically put in areas of both top and bottom floors where they crack or shear crucial support beams. After the explosions are triggered and the support is eliminated, gravity brings the buildings down.

Implosions can be done with great fanfare, as Steve Wynn famously did when he got rid of the Dunes to make way for Bellagio in 1993. Back then, a pirate ship at Treasure Island — which was also owned by Wynn at the time — fired a “shot” that “exploded” the marquee at the Dunes. Then the hotel’s north tower was lit aflame and imploded beneath fireworks.

The most recent hotel implosion near the valley’s main tourism area was the off-Strip, 200-room Clarion in 2015. The initial implosion failed to topple the hotel’s elevator shaft, however, so workers later had to lasso it with steel cables and pull it down using construction vehicles.

The Clarion implosion was significant in its own way, but expect more fanfare with the Riviera, a bigger property with much more history and sentimental value. Hayes said there would be fireworks.

Leading up to the event, the authority was encouraging people to submit “what happens here, stays here” confessions into a “vault” at www.whhsh.com.

“What happens here, stays here, so now you can confess to ‘that one time …’ without it ever leaving Vegas,” the website read. “We’ll print it; seal it into a high-security, maximum-anonymity, no-judgment, ultrasafe confessional; then send it off into oblivion with the Riviera. Forever.”

Those who entered were given a chance to win a trip to Las Vegas that included airfare and a three-day, two-night hotel stay.

What happens next

Work at the site should continue in advance of the August implosion of the Monte Carlo tower, and the entire lot is expected to be cleared by December. The authority needs the site to be ready for a major trade show to use it as outdoor exhibit space early next year.

Eventually, the authority intends to build an extension of its Las Vegas Convention Center on that site. The convention center is located just across Paradise Road and the authority is planning a $1.4 billion expansion and renovation project that’s currently being vetted by the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee.

That same committee is also vetting a proposal for a 65,000-seat domed football stadium to potentially house an NFL franchise — a facility that backers have previously suggested could be built on the Riviera site as well.