Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Property investment pays off for 104-year-old

A 104-year-old businessman waited until the time was right to sell the Las Vegas warehouse property he bought as investment more than 30 years ago.

Retired physician Russell Clark of Orem, Utah, was in town Monday to finalize the sale of his Tropicana Industrial Center, at 5115 Industrial Road south of Tropicana Avenue, to a 30-year-old developer who plans to build a high-rise condominium.

Clark bought the 9-acre property Dec. 11, 1973, for $79,000, Clark County assessor records show. At that time he was 73 years old and purchased the property as a long-term investment.

Thirty-two years later, that investment has paid off.

"I had a little spare time and I made use of it," Clark said of the purchase.

While neither the seller nor the buyer -- New York developer Gil Dezer -- would disclose the purchase price -- market analysts said that type of land goes for $1 million to $4 million an acre.

That means Clark's property is now worth anywhere from $9 million to $36 million.

The property closed escrow Monday and is expected to be recorded with the Clark County assessor's office this morning, said George Connor, senior vice president at Colliers International, who represented Clark.

When Clark bought the industrial property, Las Vegas was nowhere near as developed as it is today.

An aerial photo of the property from the early 1970s shows the industrial buildings surrounded by desert and the Strip consisted of a handful of hotel-casinos, including the since-imploded and redeveloped Dunes and Sands, now the sites of Bellagio and the Venetian, respectively.

Rather than stay at one of Las Vegas' hotels after he bought the property, Clark slept on an Army cot in one of the buildings to make sure construction of the remaining industrial buildings was completed properly, he said.

"I wanted to be on the job day and night; that was enough to keep me busy," said Clark, adding that the hotels' distractions didn't interest him.

Clark, named America's oldest worker in the United States in 2003 by Experience Works, a nonprofit group that helps older workers, began investing in real estate properties in the 1950s and has continued to be actively involved in the business ever since.

Clark credits the longtime general manager of his Las Vegas property, Ray Farrer, for helping him keep everything at the site in line all these years.

As for what kept him going long after his peers have retired or died, Clark said good genes play a role in it, as does his clean-living lifestyle.

And of course, there's the relay marathons he participates in.

That's right, he runs almost every day.

"I don't go running in the snow, I use the treadmill on stormy days," the father of five said. "That helps, every day it's on my agenda."

Clark also travels, with recent trips to China, Europe and Alaska.

He said a positive attitude, work and reaching out to others also helps.

"Looking up instead of down, and thanking the Lord for his many blessings," said Clark, who remains active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Clark is a living witness to history -- both the good and the bad.

Clark loves telling school children how his family made ice cream in the early 1900s on their Idaho ranch by first hauling ice from the river in winter, and storing it in cool cellars for the hot summer days, said son Stephen Clark, who was with his father as he finalized the transfer of his property.

Russell Clark's life spans the accelerating use of technology and the Great Depression and two World Wars.

And it was a twist of fate that put him at Chicago's Cook County Hospital on Feb. 12, 1929, the day of that city's infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre, when the rivalry between Al Capone and Bugs Moran turned into a bloodbath. Clark was on call that day and was asked to pronounce dead several of the men who were brought to the hospital.

"I went to the morgue to see if they were still breathing, but they were all dead," Clark said.

Clark remembered how Las Vegas has changed from those early years when he would visit his property.

"It's a different city, a different community," he said.

One sign, besides the obvious physical growth of Las Vegas, is what Clark's property will be used for after it is sold.

Dezer, the man buying the property, said he plans to build a cluster of high-rise condominium towers.

"Las Vegas is an ever-changing place and currently there is a large boom for high-rise developments," said Dezer, who turned 30 today.

Listening to Dezer's Las Vegas plans, Clark wished him good luck.

"You've got your work cut out for you," Clark said.

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