Jail, courthouse plans key real estate boom

Jeff Schweers

Friday, Sept. 12, 1997 | 10:13 a.m.

Several prominent lawyers and other investors have profited from a downtown real estate boom sparked by plans to build a new jail, courthouse and other redevelopment projects.

Among the buyers and sellers are U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., attorneys Robert Peccole, Jim Jimmerson and John Spilotro, former Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman John O'Reilly and property broker David Powell.

More than $25 million in downtown property has changed hands since public officials launched a campaign in April 1996 asking voter approval of a $120 million bond to help pay for the jail expansion and regional justice center.

That includes the city's purchase of 19 parcels worth $10.7 million.

Since November, Bryan and his partners -- who include Powell and Peccole -- sold five lots for $2.62 million to two prominent downtown law firms. They also sold two parcels in January to the city for an undisclosed sum. The city plans to use the property for a new Nevada State Bank building.

"These properties we've been trying to unload for decades," Bryan said. "They have not been a spectacular investment."

Bryan, a 10 percent owner, didn't know how much he profited.

"I got in for just a few thousand dollars, it was the only way I could have afforded to invest in anything," Bryan said. "We bought them years ago hoping the value would appreciate."

The seven lots sold by Bryan and his partners are within a block of the site chosen for the justice center, a square block occupied by the Rainbow Vegas Hotel. The block is bounded to the north and south by Lewis and Clark avenues, and to the east and west by Third Street and Casino Center Boulevard.

Powell said the seven lots were bought between 1973 and 1977. He declined to say how much they paid for the land or how much they profited from selling it.

The downtown market had been stagnant for more than a decade, Powell said, until about two years ago with the emergence of the city's redevelopment efforts and the county's plans for a new jail and justice center.

"We would have all liked to have done better things than carry that property for 20 years," Powell said. "We could have done better with that money in the bank. We did not sell at a loss but for the time we held it it could have done a lot better."

A justice complex has been part of Mayor Jan Laverty Jones' vision for downtown revitalization for six years. The Rainbow Vegas Hotel property materialized as a potential location 18 months ago, she said. The city bought the property in March, and approved an agreement this week to sell it to the county for construction of the courthouse.

The largest of Bryan's sales was to prominent Las Vegas attorney Jim Jimmerson, who paid $1.99 million for three lots due south of the proposed justice center along Clark Avenue.

"I know that Jimmerson has been trying for years to get out of that location in the Bridger Law Center,' Bryan said.

Jimmerson said he knew of the pending justice bond sale last year, and had worked with city planners since 1994 on his site plan and blueprints for a two-story, 20,000-foot law office for his and other law firms.

But he said he didn't know the exact location of the justice center when he agreed to buy from Bryan.

"Our lease expires here (at the Bridger Law Center), and we were looking for places to relocate," Jimmerson said.

Bryan and partners also sold two lots on Casino Center and Bonneville Avenue for $630,000 to a group fronted by John Spilotro Jr. and his law partner, Mark Kulla. A third partner in the real estate deal, Marty Keach, represents Mike Tyson and is a law partner of famed criminal attorney Oscar Goodman, who helped Spilotro get his start and once defended his uncle, the late Chicago mobster Anthony Spilotro.

Spilotro's consortium bought the Bonnie-Villa apartments with the intention of building their own law office within walking distance of the justice center, Spilotro said.

"We hope to have some of the bigger lawyers in Las Vegas, and we hope to be near the courthouse," he said. "Obviously that was attractive based on the justice center going in."