Convention authority gets OK to buy more Sierra Vista Drive property
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority soon will purchase another slice of Sierra Vista Drive.
At its board of directors meeting Tuesday morning, the authority was given approval to move forward with the purchase of 500 and 650 Sierra Vista Drive, at a cost of up to $21 million.
The purchase was approved by all attending directors except member John Caparella, who expressed his dismay about the price just before the vote.
“I can’t think, as a businessman, there’s a worse way to overpay,” said Caparella, who is president and chief operating officer of The Venetian, Palazzo and the Sands Expo and Convention Center.
In late May, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based WREP II Place Phases 1&2 LLC purchased both of the properties in question for $9.18 million from Houston-based Sierra Nevada Multifamily Investments LLC.
The two properties eventually will add 5.31 acres to the Silver Parking Lots after the convention authority takes over the land.
In response to Caparella, the authority’s general counsel, Luke Puschnig, said the land was appraised at $21.6 million in September.
The starting price when negotiations began was $28.5 million, Puschnig said.
“We have an opportunity to get this property now to be prepared for the Global Business District,” he said.
The Las Vegas Global Business District is the authority’s planned $2.5 billion project to renovate the convention center and create a transportation and technological hub around the property.
To purchase this property, the authority also must take over managing the active apartment leases at the two complexes on the land.
The leases are valid through December 2014. The 240 units are 94 percent occupied, and the average rent per month is $521, which will be paid to the authority through an apartment management company the board will hire once the sale goes through.
The estimated cost for hiring the outside management company is $800,000.
The total investment by the authority per acre is estimated to be $4.11 million, which includes the sale price and property management costs.
Contact reporter Laura Carroll at lcarroll@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588. Follow @lscvegas on Twitter.
