Letter: Developer shouldn’t get sweetheart deal

Friday, Nov. 30, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

My blood is boiling after reading the lead story in Wednesday's Las Vegas Sun. It seems our City Council decided to sell an out-of-state developer, The Tapestry Group, 15.25 acres of land at a 90 percent discount.

The idea is that the developer will build affordable housing. A sweet deal: Pick up land valued at $14.5 million for about $1.45 million. What's worse is Tapestry threatened to walk away from this sweetheart deal if the city let anyone else bid on it.

I am here to make a legitimate offer right now. I will gather $2 million by Dec. 31 for the land and build similar apartments with rents similar to those The Tapestry Group promised. An instant $550,000 increase for the city.

I am just an ordinary citizen, not wealthy by any means - I am a dealer at the Palms Casino. My wife and I own two condos, the one we live in and one about a half-mile from that land.

If anyone is going to devalue our property by getting a sweetheart deal from the city government, it might as well be me. Building those units and renting at $150 to $250 below market will seriously devalue my property and the investment I worked so hard to create.

If the city accepts my offer I will open an LLC and have zero problem raising the money by the end of the year. I will begin construction early in 2008. I will cash out our 401(k)s and refinance our condos to raise $200,000 myself, and I know enough real estate professionals that raising $1.8 million on such a sweet deal would be easy.

I'll be waiting for my phone to ring.

Michael Moesch, Las Vegas