Las Vegas golf course taken over by FDIC to go on auction block
Stallion Mountain Golf Club to be auctioned Aug. 16
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 | 4:39 p.m.
Sun Coverage
A Las Vegas golf course taken over last summer by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. when it seized Community Bank of Nevada will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
The Stallion Mountain Golf Club, located 6.9 miles east of the Strip on East Flamingo Road, was closed in July 2008 when a group of investors who bought it in 2006 from developer Billy Walters for $24.5 million gave it back to the bank when they could no longer afford their debt service payments.
The FDIC took over the bank in August 2009 and has maintained the course to prepare it for public auction.
The course, originally known as the former Sunrise Country Club, was built by former PGA player Jim Colbert and was the site where PGA Tour pro Chip Beck shot a record-tying 59 in the 1991 Las Vegas Invitational.
The auction is set for Aug. 16 and will be done through sealed bids, said Keith Cubba, a broker with the Land & Investment Group at Colliers International Las Vegas. Once the bids are received, it will be whittled down to a group of finalists who will be asked to make their final offer, he said.
“Golf courses rarely trade hands in Nevada, and when they do, they are typically done as off-market deals that aren’t open to public bidding,” Cubba said.
The area had three courses at one time but Walters sold two of them to Pulte Homes in 2004 for home construction, Cubba said.
Today, Stallion Mountain, 5500 E. Flamingo Road, is situated within a 2,600-home gated community. The course features adjoining clubhouses totaling 37,500 square feet and 16-acre practice facility.
Community Bank of Nevada had the course on the market but didn’t sell it, even when it had an offer from a Las Vegas casino in June 2009, Cubba said.
The bank never placed a value on the course that was bought for $24.5 million. Cubba said it will sell for excess of $5 million but wouldn’t predict a final price.
Stallion Mountain has an advantage over most Las Vegas courses because it has a contract for water to pay 25 cents per 1,000 gallons, Cubba said. The average course pays $2 per 1,000 gallons, and it is not unusual for courses to use one million gallons a day, he said.
Cubba said he expected at least a half-dozen bids, including those from wealthy individuals who want their own course to institutional golf course owners, owner-operator groups, and entrepreneurial groups, he said.
“There is demand because Las Vegas has only 50 courses and people want to get in here,” Cubba said. “If you were purchasing a course at the height of the market and carrying debt, you are hurting right now. But if you purchase at the right number with low debt service and good operations, you can make money.”
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I forgot that the Federal Government not only owns and manages banks and car companies, they also own and manage golf courses.
Walter's is FRAUD, on gov dole. Just look what he (& his son) did to McCarrin & Laughlin properties.
Stallion Mountain, like most courses in Nevada uses effluent or re-use water. The effect of that use on supply of potable water (what we need to live) is minimal.
FDIC is an independent agency. They insure your savings and protect your money through funds banks pay as premiums to carry the insurance. It's a common misunderstanding, but they are not the fed. In the case of Stallion they acted as receiver of a closed golf course until it was ready for sale.
Hey the feds at times have managed pleasure palaces - now there is an oxymoron - especially among Republicans! Pleasure - not likely.
Hey, Chriscodisco, the Federal Government also owns or manages the interstate highway system; the aerial highways used by all airlines; the dams and riverways that bring us our water each day; the social security system that brings monthly retirement checks and disability checks to your friends and relatives;and, the medicare/medicaid system that many, if not most, of your friends and relatives benefit from. Next time you are using any of the aforementioned systems, cogitate.
http://www.facebook.com/theGeezerBandit?...
This guy is taking back from the Banks one at a time!!
www.facebook.com/theGeezerBandit?v=wall
We've heard that story before about the golf courses using the gray, no black, water from the casinos and other water using businesses. My question is, do the casinos and other busineses in town have seperate sewage collection systems in their buildings to keep the gray and black (sewage) water seperate? Or do they just have the normal system and it is propaganda that no black water is involved? After all 2 seperate systems in the buildings to their ultimate destination, whether the treatment plant or a golf course, is a hugely expensive setup. So expensive that it sounds like the whole thing is fiction and that those golf courses are using good water.
How much of a water shortage would there be in the west if they shut down the hundreds of golf courses in the deserts. Phoenix has over 200. Palm Springs has over 100. Las Vegas 50, etc,etc,. In the past the southwest has had droughts lasting decades. If this is another of those times it won't be long before golf courses will be ordered to close and homeowner swimming pools drained and filled in.
"The bank never placed a value on the course that was bought for $24.5 million."
You're kidding right?
Even those nationally televised tattooed pawn freaks don't blindly lend money on collateral without having some clue to its value -- who were the clowns operating the Community Bank of Nevada circus anyway -- are they in jail?
They didn't even give advanced notice to the public that they were closing, while all their previous websites redirect searchers to FDIC information sites.
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/fail...
harley
the bank couldn't associate a realistic price with the course because they would have had to write the asset down on their books. They couldn't afford the right down on their balance sheet.
The FDIC did not close the golf course. The course was closed for over a year before the FDIC became receiver for the bank. They did a very good job of maintaining the course and working with concerned homeowners.
Remember when the IRS ran the Mustang Ranch?
Walters paid the City of Las Vegas a total of only $894,000 for the land -- a real sweetheart of a deal put together by former Mayor Jan Jones and former Councilman Mike McDonald, later ratified by current Mayor Oscar Goodman.
Walters sold the city's land for $24.5 million therefore making a profit of at least $23,606,000 off the taxpayers of Las Vegas.
Former LV Councilman Steve Miller
"harley
the bank couldn't associate a realistic price with the course because they would have had to write the asset down on their books. They couldn't afford the right down on their balance sheet." --macj38
Yet we're to believe the lending institution was forced into lending funds upon a asset of unknown value?
Again, who were the bank executives involved in the transaction and where are they now -- jail?
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harley,
i'm not sure why there's confusion. the bank wrote the loan on the 24.5 purchase. they wrote it based on an appraised value from a very reputable appraiser. post foreclosure there were balance sheet issues that came with writing the asset down to a realistic value. pretty simple and very common.
$24 million???? It's grass and a whole of holes someone deliberately made all over the place in the dark.Then they called it a golf course. They should make the owners walk down to the river and fetch the water to care for that grass...
Steve Miller, get your facts straight. Bill Walters bought Stallion Mountain from Jim Colbert when it was Sunrise CC.
The land you are referring to is what Royal Links is built on, and I believe there was an RFP for that land, Bill Walters won the bid - only a handful of people bid on it. You have to remember at that time land was not worth what it over-inflated at many years later, or I would imagine there would have been hundreds of people who would have bid on the land. Plus it is near the water treatment plant that really doesn't smell so good. The city should be happy they made any money on that land.