City to demolish decrepit Aladdin Villas

Denise Cardinal

Thursday, Feb. 5, 1998 | 10:17 a.m.

Residents of the Aladdin Villas apartment complex in Meadows Village will have to move out of their homes by Friday at 5 p.m. because the city of Las Vegas -- in the longest City Council meeting on record -- declared the property unsafe and ordered it vacated.

The City Council unanimously voted 3 to 0 to deny the owner's appeal that the order be stopped or extended for another few weeks. Mayor Jan Laverty Jones was not present for the meeting and City Councilman Larry Brown left before the vote was taken.

The decision came after an 11-hour hearing that ran from 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon to 3:30 this morning.

Exposed wires, faulty gas lines, unsound stairwells, leaky roofs and dilapidated landings were all cited as reasons for serving the order to vacate on Aladdin Villas.

Once vacated, the buildings are ordered to be demolished by Friday, Feb. 13. There are also three, single-story blue buildings on the same property that have two weeks to be repaired, or another order of vacation will be served.

City Councilman Michael McDonald, who represents the Meadows Village area and served as Mayor Pro Tem at the hearing, said the city has found homes for the almost 100 residents who live in the complex.

"We found apartments for them right in Meadows Village," he said. "In some cases, they'll be paying less rent. The managers of the other complexes say they will welcome Aladdin Villas residents with open arms."

The owners of Aladdin Villas, Mick and Brian Mallas, hired attorney John Moran Jr. to represent them during the hearing. The Mallas' are from California, and had previously been using an out-of-state attorney in their dealings with the city.

Moran, one of Las Vegas' most well-known attorneys, argued in the hearing that the city can't go ahead with the vacation because the Mallas' recently declared bankruptcy. Destroying the Aladdin Villas apartments, he said, would seriously affect the value of his clients' assets.

Ben Still, acting as city attorney, countered that at the bankruptcy hearing, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jones discussed the demolition of the complex with the Mallas' attorneys.

"When it comes to the health, safety and welfare of the public, bankruptcy isn't an issue," he said.

None of the residents of the complex were used as witnesses in the testimony, which got contentious at times between Moran, the City Council and the city officials who served as witnesses. Some of the building inspectors were questioned by Moran and the city attorney for hours at a time.

This decision is the first time the City Council has ordered an apartment building to be vacated and demolished through the hearing process. Though McDonald contends that the city's order isn't necessarily a message for all landlords.

"This owner had since April of 1997 to come into compliance," McDonald said. "He's had four appeals and then had it held from the last city council meeting. It's the city taking a stance against out-of-state landlords that don't care. They take their money out of the neighborhood and don't put it back in."

McDonald pointed out that the Mallas' hadn't paid $32,850 in sewer bills, $71,893 in property taxes, $6,845 in garbage pickup and about $12,000 in water company.

"But then they hire when of the biggest attorneys in Las Vegas," he said, "Rather than put money back into the apartments."

There are no other appeals that the owners can make -- except to ask the Federal Bankruptcy Court to stop the city's order to protect the Mallas' assets.