More than $13 million raised in BLM auction

Friday, Nov. 2, 2001 | 11:17 a.m.

The federal Bureau of Land Management on Thursday auctioned off nearly 126 acres scattered throughout the Las Vegas Valley, raising more than $13.6 million that will go for local government and environmental uses.

The agency successfully sold 37 parcels at or above the minimum appraised value. Rex Wells, BLM assistant field manager in Las Vegas, said 11 parcels that did not win a bid will be offered at an Internet auction, probably within a couple of weeks.

Another auction in June failed to win bids for eight properties, six of which subsequently sold on the Internet, Wells said.

"We did very well today," he said.

One parcel on the northeast corner of Grand Canyon Drive and Flamingo Road sold for more than $1 million, more than twice its appraised value.

The largest single parcel was a 42.5-acre property sandwiched between Maryland Parkway, Spencer Street, Windmill Lane and Wigwam Avenue. Developer and home builder Concordia Homes bid $2.8 million for the land.

Concordia President Gidget Graham said the company isn't sure how the land would be developed.

This was the fourth auction of Las Vegas Valley land authorized by the 1998 Southern Nevada Public Lands Act, a federal law allowing 27,000 acres of BLM land to be sold in the next two decades.

The sales have thus far generated $48.5 million. The land auctions have provided $24 million for purchase of environmentally sensitive land, $5 million for capital improvements in local recreation areas, $4.2 million for the Clark County Wetlands Park, and more than $15.5 million to the Southern Nevada Education Fund, Southern Nevada Water Authority and Clark County Department of Aviation.

The BLM manages about 47 million acres in Nevada.