Blockchains CEO buys Las Vegas bank for $28M

The investor behind a proposed “smart city” in Northern Nevada has bought a small Las Vegas bank.

Blockchains LLC founder Jeff Berns, who acquired a landmass triple the size of Summerlin last year outside Reno, purchased Kirkwood Bank of Nevada for $25 million and agreed to invest an additional $3 million as part of the deal, according to Blockchains spokeswoman Sarah Johns.

The sale was announced Monday.

Johns said Tuesday that Berns did not buy the bank to help finance his sprawling real estate project in Northern Nevada. Kirkwood and Blockchains are separate companies owned by the same man, she said, but added there is potential for them to enter into some sort of business agreement at some point.

“Jeff is a very strategic person,” she said.

Berns did not return a call seeking comment.

Founded in 2008, Kirkwood has two locations, both in the western Las Vegas Valley. As of March 31, it had 15 employees and most of its $70 million-plus loan portfolio was tied up in real estate deals, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Berns said in the news release he intends to keep both locations and “strategically grow the bank’s footprint in the region.”

He has no plans to change the bank’s management or other personnel, Johns said.

John Dru, president of Kirkwood Bank, said in the release the deal was about “finding the right partner” who would “mirror our image and help us expand our relationships.”

Dru did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Berns acquired more than 67,000 acres in Northern Nevada last year to build “a new kind of business and residential community,” according to Blockchains’ website.

By comparison, Summerlin, Las Vegas’ largest master-planned community, has more than 100,000 residents and spans 22,500 acres.

Blockchains’ land is slated to feature a “smart city with a decentralized blockchain infrastructure underlying all interaction,” its website says. It would include a high-tech park with artificial intelligence and 3D printing; residential units; and various business concepts “that will take advantage of emerging technologies.”

According to software company SAP, blockchain technology is a “difficult-to-hack record of transactions” that was initially created for trading bitcoin, but its “potential reaches far beyond cryptocurrency” to include property records, loans and identities.

Johns said the smart city would cover 2,200 acres. The company’s land would also include Blockchains’ headquarters and a “hyper-secure” digital-storage facility, she said. Blockchains’ vice president of security, whose duties include executive protection and disaster preparedness, is a former U.S. Marine scout sniper team leader.

Berns also wants to build an e-sports arena in Northern Nevada and an “immersive content creation studio” to record videos, music and the like, Johns said.

As for its other products, she said the company’s main focus is developing biometric recognition technology that would use the vein pattern in the palm of a hand to let customers access personal data.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.