agreement was announced two months later, with El Ad paying approximately $35 million per acre for the 35-acre site. At more than $1.2 billion, it was the most expensive real estate transaction on the Strip. El Ad planned to demolish the New Frontier and build a $5 billion Plaza-branded resort in its place. The New Frontier closed on July 16, 2007, at 12:01 a.m. The closing was a low-key event. At the time, the New Frontier operated the last remaining bingo room on the Strip, and was one of the few remaining casinos to still use coin-operated slot machines. El Ad completed its purchase three weeks after the closure. The 984-room New Frontier had remained popular as a low-budget alternative to larger resorts nearby. However, it lacked the same popularity as previous resorts such as the Sands, Stardust, and Desert Inn. In 2006, readers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal voted it "Hotel Most Deserving of Being Imploded". Wynn, who now owned the Wynn Las Vegas resort across the street, called the aging Frontier "the single biggest toilet in Las Vegas". The New Frontier was the last of the Hughes-era casinos to be demolished. After a five-minute fireworks show, the 16-story Atrium Tower was imploded on November 13, 2007, at 2:37 a.m. Thousands of spectators turned out to view the demolition. The tower was imploded by Controlled Demolition, Inc., which had worked on other Las Vegas hotel implosions. The interior was stripped down allowing for the insertion of dynamite, totaling 1,040 pounds and spread across 6,200 different areas of the tower. The implosion left a four-story pile of concrete, glass and steel remains. Two low-rise hotel wings were demolished with the use of an excavator, although the discovery of asbestos slowed the process down. The roadside sign was left up until December 2008, when Wynn requested that it be taken down ahead of the opening for Encore Las Vegas, an addition to his Wynn property. The city's Neon Museum sought to save portions of the sign. Proposed redevelopment The Plaza project failed to materialize, due to financial problems brought on by the Great Recession. Wynn offered to beautify the vacant site with landscaping, and was also approached by El Ad several times to take over the land and develop it. However, he declined as he considered such a project too much of a financial risk. Wynn blamed what he saw as