McCarran property nets county $3 million

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2000 | 11:05 a.m.

A contentious bidding war for property near McCarran International Airport Tuesday had two major developers baffled and Clark County commissioners calling for a review of the airport's auction policy.

After the hour-long feud with the developers continually upping their offer, however, the county was $3 million richer, and board members were rethinking their orders for a review.

"The taxpayers have benefited from the ordeal you're going through," Deputy District Attorney Mary-Anne Miller said.

Sunset III LLC will give the county about $5 million worth of property and an additional $3 million cash in exchange for 10 acres of land that falls under the airport's Cooperative Management Agreement.

The agreement between the federal government and the airport gave McCarran 5,300 acres to control the type of development that occurs under flight paths. Airport officials have since aggressively pursued land in the noisiest zones, particularly parcels designated for residential neighborhoods.

Aviation Director Randall Walker told board members that is why Sunset's proposal -- which included 7.5 acres of residentially zoned property -- was better than Randy Black's offer to pay the county $10 million for the 10 acres.

The airport will place deed restrictions prohibiting residential development on the newly acquired land from Sunset and will sell the property at fair market value.

'We already have a lot of homes out there, but there are already a lot of noise complaints too," said Walker, who estimated the airport has already spent $100 million on noise abatement. "We don't want more."

No matter which deal the county accepted, because the land falls under the management agreement, it must return 85 percent of the proceeds from a sale to the federal government, give 5 percent to the state and keep 10 percent.

Black said the parcels auctioned off by the airport were under-appraised and added that by taking his offer the county benefits. Black, who has built apartments and condominiums, asked commissioners whether they thought it was "weird" Walker would recommend the proposal with lesser value.

"What I think is weird is people building homes underneath the flight paths of airports," Walker shot back.

Commissioners were frustrated to have to choose between Sunset -- which for months had been buying property the airport would be interested in gaining in the exchange -- and Black's cash offer.

"For someone to work on a project and have someone come in and outbid you on it ... we need to get the law changed before we go through this again," said Commissioner Mary Kincaid.

The board was further baffled by a bidding process in which each side bickered with one another and continued to add more to their offer.

Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates abstained from the final vote, saying she objected to the process. She suggested the airport halt further land exchanges until the policy is revisited.

"It was awful; it made a mockery of everything," Atkinson Gates said. "We could have avoided this with a sealed bid and we're still going to benefit because they're going to try to offer the highest bid possible."