Bidders lining up for chance at 2,000 acres in Laughlin

Kevin Rademacher

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 | 11:05 a.m.

On Wednesday the Bureau of Land Management will auction off more than 2,000 acres in Laughlin.

While such auctions happen frequently in the Las Vegas Valley, the Laughlin event is the first for the riverside casino city, BLM officials said.

BLM officials said in a statement that, as of Monday, 150 potential bidders have pre-registered for the sale, but other bidders could register Wednesday morning prior to the auction.

John Restrepo, principal with the Las Vegas research firm of Restrepo Consulting Group LLC, expects interest from Las Vegas-area developers to be high at the Laughlin auction.

"It's a natural progression," he said. "It's all part of the progression of people heading down to Kingman and Pahrump. ... All of those facilities are in play now because of the land prices here in the valley."

Up for grabs in Laughlin are 72 parcels ranging in size from 1.25 acres to 583 acres. The minimum bid prices range from $54,000 for a 2.89-acre parcel to $52.7 million for a 555-acre parcel.

Restrepo said the land sold Wednesday could be used for everything from industrial to residential developments.

"Everyone is being more creative because of the high land prices," he said, adding that particular attention is going to be paid to possible new home sites. "These outlying areas are going to be bedroom communities for Las Vegas. Developers know there's a whole un-met market out there for people being priced out of the housing market in Las Vegas."

Bidders must submit a bank draft or cashiers check for $10,000 to register. The deposit will be applied to the parcel price for successful bidders or returned to unsuccessful bidders.

Winning bidders must pay 20 percent of the successful bid by 2 p.m. on Wednesday. The remainder of the full bid must be paid within 180 days.

In a February BLM auction held in Las Vegas, 60 parcels were sold for $602.49 million, or about $263,706 an acre.

The previous summer 71 Las Vegas Valley parcels totaling 2,532 acres were auctioned for $707.2 million, or almost $279,300 an acre.