Desert Inn Estates homeowners hold out for more money

Tuesday, July 4, 2000 | 11:21 a.m.

If they don't sell, that won't stop new owner Steve Wynn's plans to redevelop the 218-acre property, said Irwin Molasky, who built many of the country club community's homes 40 years ago.

Wynn has said he will close the hotel-casino by Aug. 30 and the golf course next year.

Tentative plans call for separate resorts at the corners of the Strip property. Included in the plans are two 59-story hotel-casino towers surrounding a 30-acre lake.

Residents whose homes border the Desert Inn property are holding out for prices comparable to the almost $2 million each interior homeowner accepted, Molasky said.

"We're not going to be held up. If they want more, well, we're not going to buy them," Molasky said. "If the remaining property owners want to live there, they can live there."

Molasky, acting for Wynn, said 24 homeowners have sold, including all the key interior parcel-owners.

The 11 interior parcels were crucial to the planned redevelopment, Molasky said. Next to the resort's fairways and greens, those lots are almost twice as valuable as the parcels bordering the Desert Inn, which are next to the roads surrounding the resort.

The remaining property owners are trying to take advantage of his generosity, Molasky said.

"We're offering double what these houses are worth, but they're asking four times what they're worth," he said. "It's extortion."