A proposal to build the tallest hotel tower in Las Vegas is no longer flying under the radar.

With the preliminary blessing of the Federal Aviation Administration, Clark County commissioners on Wednesday approved a proposal for a resort with a 1,064-foot tower at the north end of the Strip.

The approval gives developers of the Crown Las Vegas Resort Hotel & Casino authority to move forward with a scaled-down plan of their original proposal for an 1,888-foot tower, which would have been the tallest building west of the Mississippi.

It’s a big step forward for a proposal that’s been overshadowed by the planned CityCenter, Echelon and Plaza megaresorts. But it’s no less ostentatious in scope.

“I would expect you’ll start hearing a lot more about Crown Las Vegas now that this has approval,” said Bill Lerner, a Las Vegas-based gaming analyst at Deutsche Bank.

The current proposal calls for what developers say would be the tallest hotel building in the United States. The Stratosphere tower is about 100 feet taller than the proposed Crown tower but doesn’t have hotel rooms.

Crown would have as many as 5,000 rooms, a 250,000-square-foot casino, a 3,000-square-foot showroom, meeting space and retail.

Developers say the first phase could open as early as 2011 with another phase in 2013. It would be just south of the Sahara near the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue on the former Wet ‘n Wild site.

The proposed $5 billion project is a joint venture between Texas-based developer Christopher Milam and Australian billionaire James Packer, who has casinos in Macau, Canada and Down Under.

“I think (Packer) wants to do something here in Vegas,” said Lerner.

Milam already has an agreement to buy the site for $475 million. Last year Clark County planning commissioners approved the plan for the 1,888-foot tower in concept, but only if the FAA was on board. The taller version didn’t fly with officials from the FAA and McCarran International Airport who felt it would conflict with air traffic above Las Vegas. That stifled enthusiasm for the project because it eroded confidence it would ever be built.

With developers and aviation officials in apparent agreement and the Clark County Commission on board, those hurdles are gone, Lerner said.

Concerns from neighbors and doubts about just how the project will proceed remain.

The revised proposal the county approved Wednesday is highlighted by one large tower centrally located on the site. The height restriction, more than 800 feet lower than the original proposal, could prompt developers to want more than one tower.

If so, it would make for a much different look.

“It could be crap. They could change everything,” said Harvey Gerber, who lives on the 29th floor of nearby Turnberry Place. “They could have buildings in front of your windows.”

Gerber was one of three Turnberry residents who spoke before the county board. None opposed the project outright. But they all said they hoped the developers would do their best to minimize the impact on local residents.

To that end, they sought conditions to prevent overnight construction, study traffic on Paradise Road and ensure Turnberry residents access into and out of their approximately 800-unit, multitower community. The commission attached conditions to their approval to ensure the neighbors’ voices are heard.

Las Vegas attorney Christopher Kaempfer, who represented the developers before the commission, said neighbors would have the opportunity to be heard should the proposal undergo changes.

“If we decide to do a second tower, we’d have to come back,” Kaempfer said.

By BENJAMIN SPILLMAN
REVIEW-JOURNAL

3 December, 2007 | No comments

LAS VEGAS INTEREST-RATE ROUNDUP

3 December, 2007 | No comments

CITY POPULATION: Las Vegas now over 600,000

City estimates 1.9% increase

Keeping track of the area’s booming population takes a lot of time and can be confusing for the outside observer, since the city’s numbers have been diverging wildly from estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Census Bureau put Las Vegas’ 2006 population at 552,500 — not enough to crack the top 25 cities by population in 2006.

“Any high-growth city tends to be undercounted,” said Richard Wassmuth, a statistical analyst for Las Vegas. The discrepancy in 2006 was “about 39,000, so we’re getting up around a 6 or 7 percent difference now.”

Las Vegas calculated its estimate using dwelling unit statistics, an occupancy survey conducted each year by the U.S. Post Office and average household size.

The postal occupancy survey is unique to Clark County, Wassmuth said.

“We have such growth, we pay the postal service to do that every year,” he said. “We have the most updated information.”

Tracking the city’s population takes a lot of work, but the information is used for planning and funding decisions.

“Healthy population growth numbers not only speak to the city’s lure and attraction … they also play an important role in the allocation of both state and federal revenues,” said finance director Mark Vincent. “We need to ensure that the city receives its fair share.”

Though the figure is only an estimate, Las Vegas’ population is comparable to Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C. and El Paso, Texas.

Since 2002, Las Vegas’ population has increased by about 100,000 people, an uptick of almost 20 percent. From 2002 to 2006, the population increased an average of 3.2 percent annually. Population has more than doubled since 1990, when residents numbered about 286,000.

Las Vegas has about a third of Clark County’s 1.9 million residents.

3 December, 2007 | No comments

Real estate company files for bankruptcy

The company, which had not filed the paperwork by press time Tuesday, has 1,200 sales executives operating under its auspices and has positive operating cash flow. Owner Mark Stark, however, said Prudential Americana Group — the seventh-largest real estate firm nationally in the Prudential network — needs bankruptcy court protection so it can restructure its debt.

“We are focused on business as usual,” Stark said. “This is a debt restructuring. We continue to grow market share.”

The bankruptcy filing will not affect the 3,000 exclusive listings that Prudential Americana has in Southern Nevada, he said. Stark estimated that the company is probably the biggest residential real estate company in the area, with a 15 percent share of all local home resales. Brokers who operate under the Prudential Americana umbrella also sell new homes and commercial real estate.

Prudential Americana is the second big Las Vegas realty firm to seek bankruptcy protection in recent months.

Jimmy Dague, president of Vision Properties doing business as Century 21 Advantage Gold, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August.

At the time of the filing Vision reported $1 million in assets and $1.8 million in liabilities. The company said it had $54.6 million in gross income in 2005. Vision reported its gross income fell to $40.3 million the following year and to $15.8 million in the first eight months of 2007. The brokerage’s Web site says it has 500 agents.

Prudential Americana’s problems started in October 2004.

Stark borrowed money to buy the company when residential real estate was booming and home prices were soaring.

Stark bought the 75 percent of the company he did not already own from his partners and Prudential Real Estate, the national franchisor. To finance the buyout, Stark borrowed $22.5 million from Salt Lake City-based Zions Bank, an affiliate of Nevada State Bank, and Peninsula Capital Partners of Detroit.

Zions, which is owed $4.9 million of $10 million originally borrowed in 2004, is in first position among the company’s lenders. Peninsula is an unsecured lender and was receiving only interest payments, pending a later balloon payment.

When he bought the company, Stark said he expected a slump in the local real estate loan market would follow the boom that sent home prices soaring, but he was stunned by the magnitude of the drop.

“I did not see a 67 percent downturn coming to the Las Vegas market,” he said, referring to the drop in existing home sales over the past two years.

Because of the real estate market, Zions pulled the trigger on a loan agreement provision and ordered Prudential Americana to stop making payments to Peninsula, Stark said.

Peninsula executives in turn pumped up the interest rate on their loan to 19 percent from an average of 15 percent, Stark said.

Prudential Real Estate, the national franchisor, offered to assume the Las Vegas real estate company’s debt, but Peninsula was unwilling to accept the company’s terms.

The national company intends to provide financing to Prudential Americana during the bankruptcy, Stark said.

“It’s probably a good strategy,” said Lanis O’Steen, who owns a residential real estate brokerage in Pahrump and is a business turnaround professional.

The real estate firm, O’Steen said, can ask the bankruptcy judge “to do what’s reasonable and maximize returns and recoveries for all of the creditors.”

O’Steen said the bankruptcy filing is further evidence that small businesses are getting hurt because of the popping real estate bubble. Small businesses are key economic drivers, O’Steen said, and their problems could lead to further economic declines.

Prudential Americana operates as an umbrella company for independent real estate brokers who agree to pay a flat fee or a percentage of their commissions for administrative, legal and other support.

Stark told about 600 real estate sales workers on Tuesday morning about the bankruptcy and plans to reorganize the company.

“We had a standing ovation of support from the sales executives,” he said.

Stark hopes the company will be able to emerge from bankruptcy protection in about six months.

“We’re a great company. We’ve been here a long time,” Stark said. “I want to be here another 100 years.”

By JOHN G. EDWARDS
REVIEW-JOURNAL

3 December, 2007 | No comments

LV homes relatively affordable, data find

California has eight of 10 priciest sites in U.S.

Las Vegas ranks as one of the nation’s more affordable housing markets in the 2007 Home Price Comparison Index by Coldwell Banker.

3 December, 2007 | No comments

Despite foreclosures, other U.S. areas feel more stress