Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Developer gets 2 acres on Las Vegas Strip for $25 million

Land

Steve Marcus

Tourists pass by a vacant piece of land at the Las Vegas Strip and Harmon Avenue Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010. A Las Vegas developer has acquired the property for $25 million after being deemed the only qualified bidder in a Clark County auction.

Property location

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A Las Vegas developer has acquired a vacant piece of land at the Las Vegas Strip and Harmon Avenue for $25 million after being deemed the only qualified bidder in a Clark County auction.

A Las Vegas developer has acquired more than two acres at a key intersection on the Las Vegas Strip for $25 million after being deemed the only qualified bidder in a Clark County auction.

Brett Torino, who heads Metroflag Management LLC, which has an interest in 18 acres on the east side of the Strip south of Harmon Avenue, and two partners offered the bid that was accepted Tuesday by the Clark County Commission.

The 2.15 acres includes a long rectangular parcel with Strip frontage adjacent to the Planet Hollywood resort on the northeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue and a smaller triangular piece just south of it. The two parcels were appraised at a total of $24.7 million.

The county in March 2000 purchased nearly three acres from Reynolds Enterprises LP for the widening of Harmon Avenue. Because Reynolds waived its right to repurchase any portion of the property, when the county completed the widening project, the land was deemed disposable.

Torino, who also is chairman of the Las Vegas division of FX Real Estate and Entertainment, could not be reached to comment on plans for the acreage, which is across the street from the newly opened CityCenter development.

Metroflag, a joint venture between Torino Companies, Leviev Voymel Green and New York-based luxury commercial developer Flag Luxury Properties LLC, has subsidiaries that developed the Harley-Davidson Café, the Hawaiian Marketplace and the Smith & Wollensky steak restaurant.

The Hawaiian Marketplace, an 80,000-square-foot, $140 million retail complex modeled after Waikiki’s International Marketplace, opened in 2004.

FX Real Estate, controlled by Robert F.X. Sillerman, who also owns the “American Idol” television show, accumulated 17.72 acres in the same area of the Las Vegas Strip across from CityCenter with plans to build an Elvis Presley-themed resort.

But with the recession drying up financing for such projects, FX defaulted on its $475 million mortgage loan and planned to file for a pre-packaged bankruptcy to auction the land or sell it to company insiders.

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