Business briefs for May 15, 2001

Tuesday, May 15, 2001 | 11:10 a.m.

Mortgage broker seeks judge's help in seizing land

A mortgage company filed a lawsuit in Clark County District Court, seeking a judge's order that would enable it to take over a land parcel at the Champion Village development in Henderson.

Consolidated Mortgage Corp. said in the lawsuit it lent $1.68 million to Champion Village LLC for the development of the project, and secured this loan with a deed of trust on the Champion Village land parcel, located on Lake Mead Drive. At that time, the land parcel had not been subdivided into smaller parcels.

Last July Consolidated said Champion Village defaulted on the loan. Consolidated said it took possession of a portion of the land parcel and sold it for $1 million to Victoire Ville LLC, a company owned by investors in Consolidated. However, Clark County has refused to recognize Consolidated's deed of trust or the sale to Victoire Ville, as it does not recognize the description of the subparcel.

Consolidated is seeking a judicial order that would award the deed to the land parcel to Victoire Ville and recognize the subdivided land parcel as a legal parcel. The acreage of the subparcel was not provided.

helloNetwork honored as Nevada's top tech business

helloNetwork was named Nevada's eCompany of the Year on Saturday at the innuagural eNavada Awards, sponsored by the Internet Business Alliance of Nevada (IBAN).

The Las Vegas-based company, which provides streaming media on the Internet, beat out other top vote-getters Travelscape.com, PurchasePro, Lowestfare.com and iGo Corp. The surveys were issued to about 1,000 Nevada techies in January.

helloNetwork employs about 150 people.

Travelscape founder Tim Poster was named eLeader of the Year. He sold the travel wholesale company last year to Microsoft-backed Expedia Inc. for $95.5 million. He resigned as chairman of Travelscape earlier this year, he said, to pursue other interests.

Tririga, a Las Vegas-based Internet business that caters to the design and construction industries, was named eStartup of the Year. The company employs about 135 people and was formed by executives of Marnell Carrao Associates, the developer of Bellagio hotel-casino.

IBAN, which was incorporated in June and has about 90 Nevada companies as members, aims to serve as a voice for the Nevada tech sector.

LV stores launch loyalty program

Ultimate Electronics' two Las Vegas stores have signed onto a loyalty-rewards program that allows customers to earn free and discounted airline tickets.

The loyalty program is a partnership with Salt Lake City-based WebMiles Inc. Las Vegas shoppers can also earn WebMiles at Smiths Food & Drug Center stores, and through services offered by MCI Worldcom, online bookseller borders.com and department store chain JCPenney.com.

Las Vegas lender posts loss for quarter

Las Vegas-based commercial real estate lender Vestin Group Inc. reported a big increase in revenues for the first quarter, but still posted a net loss as a result of an aggressive marketing campaign.

Vestin reported a net loss of $475,000, or 7 cents per share, for the quarter ending March 31. In the year-ago period, the company posted net income of $838,000, or 12 cents per share. Revenues, however, increased 42 percent to $4 million.

Vestin attributed the net loss to a $3 million increase in operating expenses, the result of an "aggressive advertising program" aimed at expanding Vestin's reach into new markets.

Vegas title companies accused of fraud at failed development

A Las Vegas homebuilder sued three title insurance companies and one of their agents, alleging fraud and a conspiracy over a failed Pahrump development.

American West Homes Inc. -- which is developing the Silverado Ranch, Southern Highlands and Shadow Mountain Ranch neighborhoods in Southern Nevada -- sued National Title Co., United Title of Nevada Inc., Chicago Title Insurance Co. and C.H. "Butch" Bouchard, an agent allegedly working on behalf of National, in Clark County District Court.

The suit said American West negotiated to purchase 240 lots in the Mountain Falls development in Pahrump for $6.7 million in April 2000. The Pahrump development was owned by E.A. Collins Development Corp., Las Vegas.

American West made a deposit with National Title for the purchase price and a share of closing costs and National closed escrow and disbursed funds to Collins and instructed United Title and Chicago Title to issue a title insurance policy, the suit said.

While that transaction was occurring, American West agreed to buy another 120 acres in the development and its related water rights for $1.08 million, the suit said.

The suit alleges, however, that deeds weren't recorded even though the funds had been disbursed.

In January E.A. Collins Development Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and Collins died of cancer.

Collins, and his brother, Martin, and their Collins Brothers Development, which built The Lakes and Spanish Oaks, invested about $23 million in Mountain Falls, but ran out of money before the development and its golf course were completed.

On Jan. 5, Summit Group Inc., Las Vegas, announced it was buying Mountain Falls for an undisclosed amount.

Late last year, several banks sued Collins for loan defaults. Among them: BankWest of Nevada, First Security Bank of Nevada, Sun West Bank and Commercial Federal Bank, Omaha, Neb.

The American West suit alleges fraud on both purchases, breach of contract and civil conspiracy. It seeks more than $7 million in damages.

Officials representing the title companies could not be reached for comment on the allegations.

Valence names new CEO

Henderson-based battery maker Valence Technology said it hired Stephen Godevais as president and chief executive, duties previously held by company founder Lev Dawson.

Godevais is a former executive of Dell Computer Corp.

Dawson will remain chairman. He has planned for a successor for some time and is now ready to make the move at age 63, a spokesman said.

The company manufactures lithium-ion polymer rechargeable batteries designed for mobile devices like cell phones. It employs about 70 people in Henderson.

Retailer closing three Nevada stores

Bankrupt HomePlace of America Inc. of Myrtle Beach, S.C., will close its three Nevada stores in mid-July and lay off about 120 Nevada workers as part of a nationwide liquidation of its assets.

The three stores, which each have about 40 workers, are at 537 North Stephanie Street in Henderson, 2100 N. Rainbow Blvd in Las Vegas and 4821 Kietzke Lane in Reno. Local store staff said liquidation sales in the Las Vegas area stores began on Saturday.

HomePlace filed for protection in bankruptcy court in January, hoping it would recover after the 84-store chain shut down 38 stores. It closed 22 more stores last month, trimming 83 positions in its corporate office.

The softening economy has made vendors and creditors increasingly hesitant to extend credit terms to businesses, said Chris Beseler, former HomePlace spokesman.

TV-gaming relationship to be discussed in LV

The budding relationship between the television and gaming industries will be discussed by a panel of experts Friday afternoon.

"Plug In to Entertainment 2001," sponsored by the Entertainment Development Corp. of Las Vegas and CineVegas, is scheduled at the MGM Grand Conference Center at noon.

Panelists include Felix Rappaport, president of the New York-New York hotel-casino; Larry Namer, founder of E! Entertainment Television and a developer of the proposed Vegas Television Network; Peter Green, president of Fountain Productions, a division of Walt Disney Television; Andrew Ackerman, executive vice president of Warner Bros. Television; Alan Feldman, vice president of public affairs for MGM MIRAGE; and Jan Jones, senior vice president of government affairs for Harrah's Entertainment Inc.

The 2 p.m., panel will be preceded by a luncheon keynote address by Peter Guber, chairman and chief executive officer of the Mandalay Entertainment Group.

The event will conclude with a 5 p.m. screening of the original "Oceans Eleven" film at Olio! at the MGM Grand.

About 250 people are expected to attend the event, which has an admission price of $50 for the luncheon and panel, $40 for the movie screening or $75 for an all-access pass for the entire event.

Tech giants team up against Microsoft

SAN FRANCISCO -- Moving to create a strategic alliance against Microsoft, Sony Computer Entertainment and America Online plan to announce a new relationship today aimed at blending the video-game and online Internet experience.

The new relationship comes as the video-game industry prepares for its annual trade show, where the three major entrants -- Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft -- are jostling to capture mind-share from both software developers and consumers. The show begins on Wednesday in Los Angeles.

Underlying the alliance between Sony and AOL Time Warner is a coming collision among the personal computer, online and video-game industries that will tend to blur the lines between the different markets in the home.

"Both of these technologies are running into each other pretty hard," said Rob Enderle, a vice president at the Giga Information Group, a market research firm based in Cambridge, Mass. "Sony dominates the game market, but Microsoft has the channel to take it in the future."

In addition to its alliance with AOL, Sony will announce on Tuesday a series of peripherals for the Playstation 2, including an add-on hard disk, network connection, mouse and LCD display that will narrow the gap between its video-game machine and Microsoft's Xbox.

Many analysts have commented on how the Microsoft Xbox is closely based on the current design of the home PC, with the exception that it has been intentionally crippled so that it will not run the Windows operating system or PC programs written for Windows.

Moving in the opposite direction, the new Sony peripherals for the Playstation 2 will give it more PC features.

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