Tag Archives: Las Vegas real estate

Men’s Journal Names Las Vegas on “Best Places to Live” List

Las Vegas now has a spot in Men’s Journal’s “Best Places to Live 2010” list, but, sadly, there’s a pock mark on the distinction:  The honor is largely attributed to the foreclosure crisis that has cost thousands of people their homes. 

“Buy Someone Else’s Dream House,” the headline proclaims before giving a brief description of the city’s housing woes. 

 “The good news?” the magazine reads, “You can get a recently built house in a great area with mountain biking, climbing and a bit of nightlife nearby, for $100 per square foot.” 

It’s true, record foreclosures — Nevada led the nation in March and was high on the foreclosure list for many months — have created a small housing boom, as thousands are taking advantage of low prices and the soon-to-expire federal tax credit.

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Michael Jackson’s Las Vegas Mansion Sells for $3.1 Million

Michael Jackson rented a 16,400-square-foot Las Vegas mansion in 2007/2008 for six months while looking for a place to call his permanent home. That estate, located at 2785 S. Monte Cristo, was later taken over by Eastern Savings Bank when the owners defaulted on the lender’s loan. 

On Jan. 30, after being on the market for a mere four days, a California couple reportedly plunked down $3.1 million for the mansion. 

According to Real Estate agent Zar Zanganeh in a statement issued regarding this 10 bedroom, 15,461-square foot house:   “It’s serendipity that we sold the home that we had also rented to Michael Jackson. 

The estate became famous and generated tremendous interest because of the MJ connection; in fact, the buyer is a big Michael Jackson fan.” 

That buyer’s name has not been released, but what has been released is the fact that Michael Jackson had bigger plans for living in Las Vegas in the form of a house at 7000 Tomiyasu Lane. 

On the block in October, 2009 for $16.5 million as noted in a Zillow.com listing, the Las Vegas Sun reported that real estate czar Zar Zanganeh claims Michael Jackson was ripe to buy the 10-acre, 15,000 square-foot Mediterranean/contemporary Las Vegas manse as soon as MJ returned from his London tour, ‘This Is it’. 

Zanganeh claims to have shown Michael and his three children the Sin City complex many times. 

Zanganeh, a Realtor with Fine Vegas Estates, said, “He got so excited, the minute we drove through the gates here he got that feeling of Neverland. As soon as he stepped out of the car, he said, ‘Zar, I love this place. I’m calling it Wonderland.’” 

Built by casino king Gary Primm, the enormous edifice is kidnapper proofed (obviously, a big draw for Michael Jackson), custom-designed with three secure gates. Other safety precautions include secret tunnels, bulletproof doors, and a panic room. 

As for the fun stuff at this so-called real Wonderland: A tennis/basketball court, a 20-seat theater, a cave room den, an orchestra loft, a car showroom, a fitness room and, of course, a dance floor.

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Bad (Really Bad) Karma Surrounds Las Vegas Fountainbleau Project

If a building could have feelings and emotions, the Fountainbleau project in Las Vegas would be severely depressed.  Fountainbleau Las Vegas lenders recently sued hundreds of contractors as lien disputes escalate over unpaid bills at the now bankrupt 3,815-room casino resort project. 

There are 342 contractors and other mechanics lien holders, claiming to be owed a whopping $467 million for work at the stalled Las Vegas Strip development, that have been pressing for the right to take over the project for what they are owed. 

Lenders, in response, charge that the liens filed by Fountainbleau subcontractors are inferior. 

Meanwhile, iconic financier Carl Icahn is reportedly moving forward with his plans to buy the project during an auction this month, offering $156.2 million.

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CityCenter in Las Vegas to Cut Condo Prices by 30 Percent

Developers of the $8.5 billion CityCenter on the Las Vegas Strip plan a 30 percent price cut on condos there that people have already agreed to buy, just help close the deals during the recession. 

Company officials announced that CityCenter, co-owned by MGM Mirage and Dubai World, will begin closing on the nearly 2,400 units that have been built in two boutique hotels and two residential towers in January at the reduced prices. More than half of the units are under contract. The price cut roughly parallels the decline in Nevada’s real estate market since the units first went on sale in January 2007. 

The price reductions apply to the 227 units at Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas, the 670 units at the Veer Towers and the nearly 1,500 condo units at the 57-story Vdara Condo Hotel. 

A typical one-bedroom unit of about 800 square feet at the Vdara is now selling for about $674,000, according to an analysis by Bill Lerner of Union Gaming Group. 

Other parts of the 67-acre project include a 4,000-room casino-resort, convention space, hotels and a retail mall. The project is to start opening in December. 

Several casino industry analysts said MGM Mirage and Dubai World, the development arm of the government of Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates, had to make such a move to close real estate sales in a down market that has been particularly tough in Las Vegas. 

Lerner said in late August that the 30 percent price reductions would bring the Vdara’s prices in line with those at the Trump International Hotel down the street and the nearby Palms Place condo-hotel located 1.5 miles west of the Strip. 

Lerner said MGM Mirage might begin pushing those who have committed to buying units at Vdara toward Veer instead. 

CityCenter was originally supposed to have 200 more condo and condo-hotel units atop the Harmon, but that plan was scrapped when developers delayed the opening of the 400-room hotel portion to 2010.

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Suge Knights’ Las Vegas Mansion for Sale

Hip-Hop mogul Suge Knight’s former Las Vegas four bedroom and seven bath mansion has reportedly landed on the real estate market and is being sold for nearly $1.5 million. SugeKnight2

Known for its history which includes being Suge’s residence when Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in 1996, the home also was used as Robert DeNiro’s home in Casino.   Further amenities?  A poolside BBQ and a guest house that was once raided by the police, of course!  It’s also walking distance to Wayne Newton’s pad.  

But this historic Vegas landmark doesn’t come cheap. Price tag: $1,495,000.

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Hey, Buddy: Please Buy Our Cheap Las Vegas Casino Land!

It’s going from bad to worse for developer Andrew Lai and bankrupt land owner Spring Mtn. Wynn Investments:  Nobody bid on their prime casino land in Las Vegas. 

Despite only requiring a $1 million deposit and a minimum bid of $27.5 million for the prime 22-acre Las Vegas casino land site currently appraised at $174 million, or $7.9 million per acre, not one person was willing to take a chance and shell out cash at the May 16 auction. 

The dream of developer Lai was to develop and open in 2010 the Asian-themed Dragon City Casino and retail center, including a 31-story, 386-room hotel, employing at the facilities between 6,000 and 8,000 workers, appealing to middle-market Asian visitors to Las Vegas.

Even as the economy sputtered in 2008, in February Crowne Plaza still hailed the planned development, located on the prime property located at the edge pf the Chinatown district on Spring Mountain Road, a real gem, promising to bring “tens of thousand of visitors a year, making [it] a great location for an upscale meeting-savvy brand like Crown Plaza,” according to a statement last year from Gina LaBarre, vice president of brand management for the hotel chain.  But, a few months later, the economy was in the toilet and all plans were squashed. 

Now, the property is being split up with three of the nine total parcels on the site – amounting to 9.4 acres in the smack dab “filet mignon” center of the property, owned by the Community Bank of Nevada as collateral for prior loans (currently used as a staging area for the defunct Cosmopolitan) – going up in a foreclosure sale on June 26, as agreed in a prior deal reached with Spring Mtn. Wynn Investments.

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Former Binion’s Horseshoe Boss Seeks to Buy Las Vegas Casino

Jack Binion, former Binion’s Horshoe CEO, is very cash rich and very interested in owning a Las Vegas casino. JackBinion

But the deal isn’t inked quite yet. 

“It’s a tough market right now,” said Binion, who sold his Horseshoe casinos in Indiana, Mississippi, and Louisiana to Harrah’s Entertainment in 2004 for $1 billion.

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Elvis Investors All Shook Up in Las Vegas

The Elvis-themed resort planned for the Las Vegas Strip may not become a reality.  A group of investors who had planned to build the resort on the 18 acres across from CityCenter could be forced to sell their property because of a default on a $475 million mortgage loan. 

New York-based FX Real Estate and Entertainment said its lenders informed the company on April 9 of the bank’s intention to sell the land “to satisfy the principal amount…owed to them under the mortgage loan and secured by the property.” 

FX said it would not be able to resolve the default issue by the May 18 deadline and “is considering all legal options, including bankruptcy proceedings” to prevent the sale of the property.

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Las Vegas Buying Spree Led to General Growth Properties $27.3 Billion Downfall

Long predicted and now a reality, General Growth Properties has finally collapsed under nearly $27.3 billion in debt, much of it attributed to a Las Vegas property buying spree. 

In Las Vegas, General Growth and its subsidiaries own three malls on the Las Vegas Strip; retail, residential and office real estate in Summerlin; and two regional malls for locals- Meadows and Boulevard malls.  Strip properties are the Fashion Show mall, Grand Canal Shoppes, and the Shoppes at the Palazzo.  Their Summerlin holdings include The Hughes Corporation, which owns the stalled-in-construction Summerlin Centre retail, office and residential development.

The Chicago-based real estate investment trust on Thursday filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York federal court, leaving judges, lawyers and creditors haggle over holdings in about 200 complex properties in 22 states, including pending cases for 360 separate entities, including at least 16 with Las Vegas connections. 

The malls will continue to operate during bankruptcy proceedings, which experts say could drag on for years.

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Las Vegas Tops Forbes List for ‘America’s Emptiest City’

A report out this week from Forbes.com found that based on the sheer volume of abandoned apartments and homes, Las Vegas beat out all competitors.  Detroit, Michigan ranked second, followed sequentially by Atlanta, Ga, Greensboro, N.C., and Dayton, Ohio.forbes

Forbes.com evaluated fourth-quarter data from the U.S. Census Bureau to determine which city ranks as the country’s most-abandoned market.    Las Vegas boasted a rental vacancy rate of 16 percent and a home vacancy rate of 4 percent, the editors say.  Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, says that amounts to 31,000 empty apartments and homes.

But this statistic alone, and the dubious publication-selling list rating that goes along with it, does not begin to tell the complete story.  The relative numbers of Las Vegas inhabitants have not packed up their bags and skedaddled out of town in droves.  Far from it.  

Consider that Las Vegas back in the irrational build-crazy construction years between 2003 and 2006 were churning out a record number of between 30,000 and 40,000 new units a year, far surpassing most cities, supply far outstripping the artificially created demand.   Residents were not leaving, just more houses were built than needed.  Now, Las Vegas has many of those same dwellings back on the market, dramatically contributing to the current Las Vegas unit glut and claim to fame.   The expectation of growth building on growth never materialized.  The housing bust crippled consumer spending and the recession began.

But as one can see by going to the many entertainment and dining venues in Las Vegas, there are still plenty of people in Sin City and lots of action and excitement abound.   With the enticement of unprecedented Las Vegas entertainment, dining, and lodging deals galore, you’re invited to come on in- the water’s fine.

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Pinball Wizards Unite

If you like playing pinball, then get ready for some entertaining action.  The Las Vegas Pinball Collectors Club has pinballrecently purchased the retail building at 1610 E. Tropicana Ave. in Las Vegas, from a private seller for $1.24 million.

The 7,416-square-foot freestanding building was built in 1995. The new owner says he plans to operate a museum consisting of pinball machines that have been refurbished. The Las Vegas Pinball Collectors club donates all profits to the Salvation Army.

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