BLM sells 201 acres in valley

Wednesday, July 31, 2002 | 9:44 a.m.

The Bureau of Land Management sold 201 acres of the Las Vegas Valley for almost $31 million Tuesday.

The federal agency holds periodic auctions of land it manages within the valley. The auctions are authorized under the 1998 Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.

Kirsten Cannon, BLM spokeswoman, said the agency sold 39 parcels, most of them the size of a few acres in locations throughout the valley, to 22 bidders. However, three bidders did not turn in the required deposit after the auction.

Those three parcels totaled a little less than 10 acres and now will be sold via an Internet auction.

The largest piece, a 30-acre property at Craig and Puli roads in the northwest valley, sold for about $5.6 million to developer John A. Ritter's Southwest Desert Equities LLC.

Funds generated by the land sales are used to make improvements at local federal recreation areas such as Lake Mead and the Red Rock National Conservation Area, help protect rare plants and animals in Clark County, develop the county's natural areas and buy sensitive environmental land.

The federal land act will release 25,000 acres for sale over the next two decades. A similar amount of federal land will go to public agencies and nonprofit groups under the terms of the law.