time, including businessman Steve Wynn. Japanese investor Masao Nangaku eventually bought the resort in 1987, at a cost of $157 million. Nangaku intended to renovate and expand the Dunes, although his plans were derailed by an unusually lengthy control board investigation, which dissuaded financiers. Wynn's company, Mirage Resorts, bought the Dunes in November 1992, paying $75 million. Plans were announced to replace it with a lake resort. The Dunes closed on January 26, 1993. The original North Tower was imploded on October 27, 1993, during a highly publicized ceremony which helped promote Wynn's new Treasure Island resort, located about a mile north. The demolition event garnered 200,000 spectators. The newer South Tower was imploded on July 20, 1994, without the fanfare of the first implosion; it attracted 3,000 spectators. Wynn's new resort, Bellagio, eventually opened on the former Dunes site in 1998. History The Dunes was initially owned by a group of businessmen that included Robert Rice of Beverly Hills, James A. Sullivan of Rhode Island, Milton Gettinger of New York, and Alfred Gottesman, a wealthy theater operator in Florida. Rice and Gottesman were new to the gaming industry. The group proposed the project, originally called the Araby, in July 1953. It was later renamed the Vegas Plaza, and then Hotel Deauville. Groundbreaking took place on June 22, 1954, with the resort now known as the Dunes. It was built by the Los Angeles-based McNeil Construction Company, which spent 11 months working on the resort. The Dunes opened on May 23, 1955, as the tenth resort on the Las Vegas Strip. The opening attracted many celebrities, including Cesar Romero, Spike Jones, and Rita Moreno. Gottesman and Sullivan were majority stockholders, and also served as 50-50 partners in the operation of the casino. Businessman Kirk Kerkorian bought a three-percent interest a couple months after the opening, marking his first Las Vegas investment. The Dunes was one of four new Las Vegas resorts to open within a six-week period, resulting in financial trouble for each of them. The Las Vegas Valley had been overbuilt with hotel rooms during a time of lessened demand, and the Dunes was also the southernmost resort on the Strip, located a considerable distance from other properties. A Dunes attorney blamed the resort's financial trouble on a persistent losing streak in its casino. Rice believed that the financial problems were the result of it competing with other resorts