Developer has grand plans for small Mount Charleston Hotel

Jennifer Shubinski

Monday, Dec. 6, 2004 | 10:43 a.m.

The Mount Charleston Hotel, long ignored by tourists and passing thought to most locals, sold to a local developer with big plans for the property.

Great American Capital, a Las Vegas-based real estate development company, purchased the mountain resort for $4 million from Robert Bigelow, owner of the Las Vegas-based Budget Suites of America chain and Bigelow Aerospace.

The sale closed escrow Nov. 18, said John Tippins IV, head of apartment and hotel investments for Insight Realty Associates, which represented Great American Capital in the transaction. The hotel employs 60 people.

Bigelow sold the property after the retirement of the hotel's general manager of 15 years, said Gary Myers, director of special projects for Great American Capital. Bigelow could not be reached for comment.

Tippins said as the population moves outward, property in outlying areas is going to become more valuable and any services will be used by more people.

"As the population grows toward Lake Mead, Mount Charleston and Laughlin, if you're moving here you're going to hit it one of these days and people are going to visit," he said.

The 63-room hotel was built in the late 1980s. Little advertising or promotions kept the occupancy at a lack-luster 29 percent throughout the year, Myers said.

The Las Vegas city-wide occupancy rate is 84 percent while the U.S. average occupany rate is 59 percent, according to the Las Vegas Convention Center.

"Their catering and banquet and wedding business did more dollar volume than the hotel," Myers said. "There will be five to six weddings a weekend."

Myers said the company bought the property because it believes it has potential -- the hotel sits on almost 6 acres of land -- for both future expansion of the property and of the business itself.

The sale last year of the Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort in Mount Charleston to POWDR Corp., the parent company of five major ski resorts in Utah and the Lake Tahoe area, bodes well for the rural area, Myers. Since the sale, plans have been discussed to expand the ski resort to include more runs and even a remodel of the ski lodge.

Myers said Great American Capital is interested in working with the ski resort to offer ski specials and packages. He also hopes to work with online travel services to offer specials and to better promote the hotel, offer mid-week rates and promote the hotel as a place to hold meetings.

Haskel Iny, one of the principals for Great American Capital, said existing space can hold up to 200 people for banquets and meetings.

"That's the future, the convention space," Iny said.

The company is working on replacing the old key-locks on hotel rooms to a security-card lock system. Remodeling of the hotel also is in the works, with replacement of the floors to a slate flooring, remodeling of the rooms and of the lobby, Myers said.

Great American Capital has plans to expand the number of rooms at the hotel, while as the same time combining some of the rooms to make them bigger, Iny said. The company also is contemplating converting the property to a national brand, he said.

"We took advantage of a good deal," Myers said.