MGM MIRAGE wants La Quinta motel demolished

Monday, Dec. 16, 2002 | 10:58 a.m.

New York-New York hotel-casino, owner of a 114-room La Quinta Inn on the Las Vegas Strip, is suing the tenant-operator of the now-closed inn and wants the motel to be demolished.

In Business Las Vegas, a sister newspaper to the Las Vegas Sun, reported on the suit Friday.

In Business reported that La Quinta Development Partners LP is accused of violating an agreement to properly maintain the property and is accused of obstructing New York-New York's attempts to demolish the motel.

The 30-year-old motel, between the New York-New York and Monte Carlo hotel-casinos and behind a Carrows restaurant, closed in late July after La Quinta terminated the lease due in part to low occupancy and rent increases imposed by New York-New York, said Teresa Ferguson, La Quinta's spokeswoman.

Shelley Mansholt, spokewoman for MGM MIRAGE, owner of New York-New York, declined comment on future plans for the motel. The property is now fenced up to keep out vandals and homeless people, according to a Carrows employee.

La Quinta sold the 114-room motel to New York-New York in January 1997 and then leased it back.

Since leasing the property in 1997, La Quinta allegedly either failed to make basic repairs or made shoddy repairs to the motel's electrical, plumbing, heating and ventilation systems, exposing its guests and employees to the danger of electrocution and toxic mold, the suit said.

The hotel-casino, after it was notified of La Quinta's intention to terminate its lease agreement in May, said it found 25 of the 114 rooms were "completely unusable and had already been taken out of service by La Quinta."

New York-New York, which estimates the costs of remediation will exceed $1.6 million, said it was economically unfeasible to continue to operate the motel and notified La Quinta in September of its decision to demolish the premises.

But La Quinta not only rejected the hotel-casino's decision and denied its allegations but allegedly threatened to make a claim for "spoilation of evidence" if the hotel-casino proceeded with the demolition, the suit said.