Funding fight puts firearms training facility in jeopardy

Stacy J. Willis and Grace Leong

Friday, July 16, 1999 | 1:52 a.m.

Financial problems have surfaced in the development of a "visionary" firearms training facility and residential subdivision near Pahrump.

Construction at Front Sight, a 550-acre residential project meant to appeal to upscale gun enthusiasts, started early this year with plans that included custom home lots, 13 shooting ranges, a rappeling wall, a SWAT tower, and a small airport.

But today the bulldozers are quiet -- and troubles are mounting for developer Ignatius Piazza, a California chiropractor turned firearms training specialist.

Front Sight is being sued by contractors for nonpayment; it has been sanctioned by the Bureau of Land Management for failing to comply with environmental guidelines; it is still wrangling with Clark County to get necessary building permits, and its original target completion date of October has been set back.

"Whenever a project starts and then stops, people start to get fidgety, and I'm sure there are some questions about whether (Front Sight) is short on cash," project engineer David Dwyer said. "But I have complete confidence that it is going to come through."

Although construction stopped this spring because the correct building permits had not been obtained from Clark County, the general contractor said he will not resume work until arrangements are made to pay him more than $1.5 million that is allegedly owed for work already performed.

"We're not going to restart construction as things stand now. I would not be a prudent businessman if I incurred any more debt," said Frank Martin, owner of general contractor Martin-Harris construction company. "Mr. Piazza owes us money. When we started this project, he had a source of funds, but that source has dried up midway. We started on the good faith that he had that source. He has assured me that he is working on another source, but I don't know what that source is," Martin said. "I've sent him a letter that says we'll start rolling within 10 days of him identifying another solid source of funding, and not before then."

Subcontractor Las Vegas Paving Corp. initially filed an $800,000 lawsuit seeking to foreclose on the project earlier this month. Martin said his company will join that suit, raising the amount owed to more than $1.5 million.

Piazza said the lawsuit makes the project's problems look worse than they are.

"It is true that we still owe Martin-Harris money," Piazza said. "But we have ongoing arrangements with Martin-Harris, and we won't allow the project to be foreclosed on. We are confident that the concerns that caused the (lawsuit) will be handled shortly ... This kind of thing happens on projects of this size all the time."

But the contractors said that it is unusual in their business to be owed large amounts and not know of a secure funding source.

"This is a visionary project, and I've had confidence in (Piazza) since the day I met him, but unfortunately, there is a problem: Does he have the money to finish it? I don't know," Martin said.

"We did some work, and we had to lien to get paid, and we haven't gotten paid yet," Golden Welch, Las Vegas Paving Company contract manager said. "So we're turning up the heat on them."

Front Sight also incurred more than $30,000 worth of environmental sanctions this spring, according to the Bureau of Land Management.

The site, about 10 miles east of Pahrump, straddles the Clark-Nye county line and is surrounded by BLM land. In March, a BLM inspector found that workers had violated the terms of their work permit in a number of ways -- Mojave yuccas were not being salvaged properly, construction had exceeded the right-of-way in a manner that threatens the habitat of the endangered desert tortoise, and Front Sight failed to hire a certified wildlife biologist to monitor wildlife on the site.

Front Sight was charged $587 per acre of disturbed desert tortoise habitat and $50 per nonsalvaged yucca. The developer is disputing the yucca claims. Piazza declined to discuss Front Sight's finances in detail, but he is confident that money will be flowing into the project soon. "But we are attempting to do it without securing debt," Piazza said. "Numerous investor-types are interested. It's just disappointing that we've had this delay."

Piazza is aiming the development at wealthy firearms enthusiasts who would rather live in a country club environment that features gun ranges and rappeling walls than golf courses -- a market he thinks is large and untapped. By locating it near a tourist destination such as Las Vegas, Piazza hopes the one-of-a-kind facility also will draw international visitors. In February, Piazza said he planned to fund Front Sight with the proceeds from his firearms training courses in Bakersfield Calif., as well as from funds promised by gun enthusiasts interested in owning lots at the Nevada development. Instead of directly selling the 1-acre lots, Piazza intends to sell memberships to the exclusive community -- with the highest level of membership, the $200,000 Platinum Membership, including a lot in the Front Sight subdivision.

More than 25 such memberships had been spoken for, but there was no large single-source investor in the project, he said. "We have some very minimal investors," Piazza said in February. "Nobody with large deep pockets is funding this project."

Front Sight held two seminars in Las Vegas and several free submachine gun training courses on the site near Pahrump in order to pump up interest in the gun club and to get locals to pre-purchase courses.

Courses that are open to the public range from the Defensive Handgun course, which costs $500, to the Handgun Master Prep course, which costs $1,200.

The institute's funding base began with the "First Family" membership program, which cost $5,000 per initial member. Front Sight's first and only other firearms facility was opened in Bakersfield in 1996.

"We have had a 300 percent growth in our student base each year," Piazza said in February, when the student base was some 3,000 members large. The first phase of construction was priced at $10 million. Piazza planned to develop a second and third phase somewhere down the line, expecting platinum memberships to be in higher demand by then -- going for $500,000 each, he said.

The original target completion date for the Front Sight development was October, 1999, but that has been pushed back.

"But we're still planning the grand opening before the end of the year," Piazza said.

Dwyer said that the gun ranges may be operational, but much of the rest of the development will not be finished.

"I don't see any way the buildings will be complete by the end of the year," Dwyer said. "But it will be an operational facility. There will be a lot of buildings that are still under construction."

Clark County officials said they are awaiting proper applications from Front Sight engineers prior to issuing building permits.

"This project has been slow -- I don't know if it's that they're getting bogged down in paperwork, or if they are getting low on cash at the present time," said Jeanne Wondra, Clark County Public Works official.

"There is one thing I want to make clear," Piazza said. "Front Sight is going to finish this project."

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